Phillips was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Lucy Powell, the Shadow Education Secretary, in 2015. A vocal critic of the former Leader of the Labour PartyJeremy Corbyn, Phillips resigned as a PPS in protest over Corbyn's leadership[2] and said she would "find it incredibly difficult" to continue as an MP if Corbyn were re-elected as Labour leader.[3] She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 leadership election.[4] Phillips was a candidate for Labour leader in the 2020 leadership election, but withdrew early in the contest.[5] Since 2019, Phillips has received the second highest income on top of her MP's salary amongst Labour Party MPs.[6]
Early life and career
Jessica Phillips[7] was born on 9 October 1981[8] in Birmingham.[9] The youngest of four children, Phillips is the daughter of Stewart Trainor, a teacher, and Jean Trainor (née Mackay), an NHS administrator who rose to become deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation and chair of South Birmingham Mental Health Trust.[10][11][12] They were politically active; in March 2016, she told Rachel Cooke of The Observer: "Growing up with my father was like growing up with Jeremy Corbyn."[13] Phillips grew up in Kings Heath. Her mother also worked for the RSPCA.[14]
Phillips worked for a period for her parents at their company, Healthlinks Event Management Services.[17] From 2010 onwards, Phillips worked for the Women's Aid Federation of England[13] as a business development manager, responsible for managing refuges for victims of domestic abuse in Sandwell in the West Midlands.[18][19][20][21]
In June 2016, she resigned as PPS to Lucy Powell, following the resignation of Powell and other Shadow Cabinet members over the leadership of Corbyn.[2] In July 2016, Phillips threatened to resign from the Labour Party and sit as an independent MP if Corbyn was re-elected as leader of the party, stating she would find it "incredibly difficult" to continue serving under Corbyn's leadership.[3] She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.[4]
In September 2016, she was elected chair of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party (WPLP), defeating her predecessor Dawn Butler, considered a Corbyn ally.[35][36]
2nd term (2017–2019)
Phillips in 2017
Phillips criticised the calling of the 2017 snap election.[37] She was reselected as the Labour candidate for Birmingham Yardley, while her predecessor as MP for the seat John Hemming was reselected by the Liberal Democrats, in what was reported as a "grudge match".[38] At the snap 2017 general election, Phillips was re-elected as MP for Birmingham Yardley with an increased vote share of 57.1% and an increased majority of 16,574 votes.[39][40] Upon her victory, she continued her criticisms of Hemming.[41]
Following the general election, Phillips said the Women's PLP would co-ordinate to promote policies beneficial to women in the context of a hung parliament.[42]
In July 2017, Phillips called for a review into elections for chairs of House of Commons select committees due to the relatively low number of female candidates.[43]
In March 2018, Phillips again threatened to resign from the Labour Party, this time in response to Labour's handling of sexual harassment allegations against Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins, stating that she would "cut up her membership card" if the alleged victim was questioned by Hopkins as part of the investigation.[44]
In July 2018 it was reported that Phillips served as deputy editor of The House, the in-house Parliamentary magazine published by the Dods Group, which had been purchased by Conservative Party donor and former vice-chairman Michael Ashcroft, earning an annual salary of £8,000 for two hours' work per month.[45]
In March 2019, she said: "I think I'd be a good prime minister" and that "I feel like I can't leave the Labour Party without rolling the dice one more time. I owe it that. But it doesn't own me. It's nothing more than a logo if it doesn't stand for something that I actually care about – it's just a f***ing rose."[46][47]
Phillips also said in March 2019 that she would "leave her son on the steps of Downing Street" after it was announced that her son's school would finish earlier on a Friday due to budget cuts.[48][49]
In 2019, a controversy emerged as local Muslim parents in Saltley, associated with the Parkfield Community School, objected to lessons on relationships and inclusivity (including but not limited to teaching acceptance of LGBT people), being taught to their primary school children as part of Andrew Moffat's "No Outsiders" programme, on the grounds that LGBT relationships were immoral: one campaigner stated that they saw homosexual relationships as an invalid sexual relationship to have,[50] while others misunderstood the lessons to be teaching children about gay sex.[51] Phillips spoke out publicly against the objecting parents, claiming to feel "bereft about this" and that the material was in her view not "inappropriate."[52] Phillips called for an exclusion zone to prevent protests outside Anderton Park Primary School in Balsall Heath against lessons on inclusivity.[53]
3rd term (2019–2024)
In October 2019, Phillips said she thought Labour was unlikely to win a majority in a general election. She said if Labour was not elected the biggest party, Corbyn should resign as party leader, whereupon she might stand for the position.[54] In November 2019, it was announced Phillips was re-selected for the Labour Party in Birmingham Yardley.[55] She was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 54.8% and a decreased majority of 10,659.[56]
Leadership bid
Following Corbyn's decision to step down as Labour leader after the party's defeat in the general election, Phillips was suggested as a potential successor. The first poll of Labour members suggested she could secure 12% of first-preference votes in a leadership competition, putting her third behind Sir Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey.[57]
Phillips announced her bid for the leadership on 3 January 2020 in Grimsby, a seat the Conservative party had gained from Labour in the election.[58] She was the third candidate to announce, following Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis. Phillips acknowledged her performance in the first candidate hustings was poor, writing "I was awful because I was trying to hit a million different lines and messages in 40 seconds."[59] She dropped out of the leadership election campaign on 21 January, during the second stage of obtaining nominations from trade unions, affiliate bodies and local parties[60] and subsequently announced her support for Lisa Nandy.[61]
Appointment to the Shadow Frontbench
Phillips was appointed by Keir Starmer to serve as Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, a position in the Shadow Home Office, on 9 April 2020.[62] She resigned from her position following a vote on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war on 15 November 2023.[63] In her resignation letter, Phillips said the decision to resign was with a heavy heart, adding that "I can see no route where the current military action does anything but put at risk the hope of peace and security for anyone in the region now and in the future."[64] It was the first time she had served on the shadow frontbench.[65]
Parliamentary Standards
In May 2022 Phillips narrowly avoided being referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards after being investigated by the Commissioner for Standards for repeatedly failing to register interests within the required timescale. She accepted that she had breached the rules, and the matter was resolved through the rectification process.[66]
Allegation of racist and bullying behaviour
In June 2023, Phillips was subject to allegations of racist and bullying behaviour in an open letter sent to Keir Starmer by the headmistress of Michaela Community School, Katherine Birbalsingh. Birbalsingh had retweeted a post on X lamenting the passing of singer Tina Turner which included a photo of Turner with her abusive former husband Ike Turner, adding the message 'Good Times'. Phillips then accused Birbalsingh of supporting domestic violence, an accusation Birbalsingh strenuously denied.[67] Birbalsingh has been labelled by the New Statesman as an influential right-wing figure in British politics.[68]
4th term (2024–)
Phillips was again re-elected at the 2024 general election with a decreased vote share of 31.2% and a decreased majority of 693.[69][70] She described it as the 'worst election I have ever stood in'.[71]
On 9 July 2024, she was appointed a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office,[72] which she said was with responsibility for safeguarding and violence against women and girls.[73]
Political views
Party issues
Phillips verbally clashed with fellow Labour MP Diane Abbott on 14 September 2015 over the gender composition of Jeremy Corbyn's first Shadow Cabinet. After she asked Corbyn why he had failed to appoint a woman to shadow the great offices of state, Abbott accused her of being "sanctimonious" and said that Phillips was "not the only feminist in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party]". Corbyn did not intervene.[74] Owen Bennett wrote in The Huffington Post that Phillips recounted: "I roundly told her to fuck off." When asked what Abbott did after that suggestion, Phillips replied: "She fucked off."[75] According to Abbott in a January 2018 Guardian interview: "Jess Phillips never told me to fuck off. What was extraordinary is that she made a big deal of telling people she had."[76] Phillips later apologised.[77][78]
Phillips told Owen Jones in December 2015 that she had told Corbyn and his staff "to their faces: 'The day that ... you are hurting us more than you are helping us, I won't knife you in the back, I'll knife you in the front'," if it looked as though he was damaging Labour's chances of winning the next general election.[79] Responding to criticism about her use of language, Phillips said on Twitter: "I am no more going to actually knife Jeremy Corbyn than I am actually a breath of fresh air, or a pain in the arse."[79]
Sex
In October 2015, Phillips was criticised on social media after she mocked the Conservative MP Philip Davies for trying to get a debate about International Men's Day. He cited men's issues like increasing male suicides, lower life expectancy relative to women, male victims of domestic violence, low educational achievement by working-class white boys and male experience of child custody cases.[80] Phillips openly laughed and pulled faces while Davies spoke, and then stated that: "You'll have to excuse me for laughing. As the only woman on this committee, it seems like every day to me is International Men's Day."[81][82] Davies responded by stating that, "If a male MP had reacted in that way about the need for debate on International Women's Day, there would have been hell to pay. It's entirely possible you'd be removed from Chambers or have the Whip removed. I'm surprised she finds that a laughing matter."[80][81] Colleagues from both leading parties agreed with Davies, and permission for a debate in Westminster Hall on the matter was eventually granted.[82] She wrote in The Independent: "I commend Philip Davies for changing the thrust of the debate to focus on male suicide – but in and of itself this day serves no useful function".[83]
In January 2016, Phillips said on Question Time that events akin to the mass sexual assaults in Cologne happened every week on Birmingham's Broad Street. She insisted any "patriarchal culture" must be challenged, but the UK should not "rest on its laurels" when two women are murdered every week.[84] In response to criticism she told the Birmingham Mail: "This isn't something that refugees have brought into our country. This is something that's always existed".[85][86] Journalist Joan Smith criticised these remarks and asked Phillips to admit she was wrong.[87]
Phillips criticised the gender makeup of Labour's Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in January 2016.[88][89]
Phillips has commented that the "British Pakistani-Bangladeshi community" have "issues about women's roles in a family, in society" and were importing "wives for their disabled sons."[90]
In March 2021, following the murder of Sarah Everard, Phillips read out the names of all women killed in the previous year where a man was subsequently convicted. She said "killed women are not vanishingly rare, killed women are common".[91] She has continued to do this each year.[92]
Transgender issues
Philips' feminist stance has also been accused of excluding trans communities, though this characterization is disputed, and some feminist organisations have raised concerns over her support for the Nordic model for sex work.[93][94]
In 2020, Philips stated that she considers trans women to be women and in regards to her experience running a women’s domestic and sexual violence service, that “We had a small number of trans women in my time there and they did not pose a risk”.[95] However in 2024, Philips stated that while she "is happy to refer to trans women as women", she believes that they should not be allowed into spaces such as women’s rape crisis refuges and prisons, and should instead have their own separate facilities.[96]
Online abuse
Phillips is frequently targeted for abuse by anonymous users on social media.[97][98] In 2015, she was subjected to rape threats on social media following her objections to International Men's Day.[99][77] In May 2016, after campaigning against online bullying, Phillips said she received thousands of threatening or demeaning tweets within a 36-hour period, including allusions to rape.[100] After she complained to Twitter and was told the tweets did not break its rules, she accused the company of "colluding" with her abusers.[101][102]
In response to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, in June 2016, Phillips stated that it "makes me want to fight harder". She wrote that they both regularly received online abuse and threats.[103] In August 2016, she told The World at One on Radio 4 that a "panic room" was being installed in her constituency office which now has an alarm system, and that improved locks have been fitted at her home.[104][105]
In an interview with Stylist, published in October 2019, Phillips said of the hate she had experienced, "Fear and hatred can be the things that drive you. I don't always think of fear as a bad thing, it gives you fight-or-flight".[105]
Personal life
Phillips lives in Moseley and is married to Tom Phillips; the couple have two sons.[12] Phillips employed her husband, previously a lift engineer, as constituency support manager until February 2019.[106][107][108][109]
In 2021, Phillips said that she had had the human papillomavirus in her 20s.[110] During a March 2022 debate on making a pandemic rule allowing at-home abortions permanent, Phillips spoke in favour and stated that she had also undergone an abortion years earlier.[111]
Phillips has appeared on the BBC satirical news show Have I Got News for You several times, appearing in June 2016, November 2016, May 2018, May 2019, May 2022, October 2022 and May 2024.[66] On 10 December 2021, Phillips presented an episode of Have I Got News for You.[112][113]
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