in 1951 and 1955, before moving to the more promising seat of Colne Valley, which he won at a by-election in 1963. He held Colne Valley until the 1966 general election, when he was defeated by the Liberal Richard Wainwright, despite the national swing to Labour. Duffy was selected to stand for Sheffield Attercliffe (which had been a safe seat for the Labour Party) at the 1970 general election following a close selection contest with George Caborn, father of future Sheffield MP Richard Caborn. He was consequently elected to represent the constituency in the House of Commons at that general election; Duffy held onto the seat with five-figure majorities at each of the subsequent contests he fought there. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence from 1974 to 1976, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Royal Navy) MoD in Jim Callaghan's Government from 1976 to 1979. Following Labour's defeat at the 1979 general election, Duffy was Opposition Spokesman on Defence from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1984. Duffy was a "moderate" on the right of the Labour Party, being a staunch pro-European and opponent of unilateral nuclear disarmament. He voted for John Silkin in the 1980 leadership election, rather than Michael Foot, the successful candidate from the party's soft left. During this period, there was an attempt to deselect Duffy, which failed by just five votes. Politically, he has said that he was close to Callaghan, Roy Hattersley, John Smith, and the young Gordon Brown. Despite his earlier pro-European views, Duffy supported the 2016 vote in favour of Britain's departure from the European Union, commenting, "Lifelong Labour supporters, like me, wanted Brexit. Reluctantly and regretfully for me, and I was a Common Marketeer in the 1970s, the creation of the Eurozone made the European Union no longer a practical venture." Following the death in May 1981 of IRA's Bobby Sands, one of the Irish hunger strikers who starved himself to death in prison, Duffy was the sole member of the British House of Commons to condemn Margaret Thatcher, according to The New York Times. In comments directed at Thatcher, amidst heckles from the Conservative benches (and frowns from his own side, whose official line was to support the Prime Minister's stance), he remarked: These comments caused "outrage", but led to Duffy receiving 600 letters in support from around the world. Despite