Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Birmingham Yardley
Birmingham Yardley is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jess Phillips of the Labour Party.
Yardley Rural District was annexed to Birmingham under the 1911 ...
since
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
. A member of the
Labour Party, she was
Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding in
Keir Starmer's Opposition frontbench from 2020 to 2023.
Phillips was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to
Lucy Powell, the
Shadow Education Secretary
The Shadow Secretary of State for Education, also called the Shadow Education Secretary, is an office in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet responsible for Opposition policy on education and for holding the Secretary of State for Education, ...
, in 2015. A vocal critic of the former
Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, Phillips resigned as a PPS in protest over Corbyn's leadership
and said she would "find it incredibly difficult" to continue as an MP if Corbyn were re-elected as Labour leader.
She supported
Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the
2016 leadership election.
Phillips was a candidate for Labour leader in the
2020 leadership election, but withdrew early in the contest. Since 2019, Phillips has received the second highest income on top of her MP's salary amongst Labour Party MPs.
Early life and career
Jessica Rose Phillips was born on 9 October 1981 in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, West Midlands. 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
The NHS Confederation, formerly the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts, is a membership body for organisations that commission and provide National Health Service services founded in 1990. The predecessor organisation was calle ...
and chair of South Birmingham Mental Health Trust.
[ ] They were politically active. In March 2016, she told
Rachel Cooke of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'': "Growing up with my father was like growing up with
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
."
Phillips went to
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls is a selective grammar school in Kings Heath, Birmingham, for students aged 11 to 18 (Year 7 to Year 13). It is one of the most academically successful schools in the United Kingdom, currently ranked 10t ...
, a local grammar school.
Her childhood ambition was to become Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
.[
Phillips studied economic and social history and social policy at the ]University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
from 2000 to 2003. She has said she marched in protest against the Iraq War. From 2011 to 2013, she studied for a postgraduate diploma in public sector management
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
at the University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
.
Phillips worked for a period for her parents at their company, Healthlinks Event Management Services. From 2010 onwards, Phillips worked for the Women's Aid Federation of England
Women's Aid Federation of England, commonly called Women's Aid within England, is one of a group of charities across the United Kingdom. There are four main Women's Aid Federations, one for each of the countries of the United Kingdom. Its aim is t ...
as a business development manager, responsible for managing refuges for victims of domestic abuse in Sandwell
Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county in England. The borough is named after the Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of the West Midlands conurbation. According to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, t ...
in the West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
.
Phillips left the Labour Party during the years of Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
's leadership, rejoining after the 2010 general election. Her period at Women's Aid as an administrator made Phillips "utterly pragmatic... I learned that my principles don't matter as much as eople'slives." In the 2012 local elections, she was elected as a Labour councillor for the Longbridge
Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire.
Public Transport
Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's Coa ...
ward, taking the seat from the Conservatives. She was then appointed as the victims' champion at Birmingham City Council, lobbying police and criminal justice organisations on behalf of victims. She also served on the West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
Police and Crime Panel.
Parliamentary career
Positions and party issues
Phillips verbally clashed with fellow Labour MP Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. A member of the Labour Party, she served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Sh ...
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 arliamentary Labour Party. Corbyn did not intervene. Owen Bennett wrote in ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' that Phillips recounted: "I roundly told her to fuck off." When asked what Abbott did after that suggestion, Phillips replied: "She fucked off." 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." Phillips later apologised.
Phillips told Owen Jones
Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' and ''Tribune.'' He has two w ...
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. 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."
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."
She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.
Sex and transgender issues
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. 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." 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." Colleagues from both leading parties agreed with Davies, and permission for a debate in Westminster Hall
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...
on the matter was eventually granted. 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".
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. 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". Journalist Joan Smith
Joan Alison Smith (born 27 August 1953) is an English journalist, novelist, and human rights activist, who is a former chair of the Writers in Prison committee in the English section of International PEN and was the Executive Director of Hack ...
criticised these remarks and asked Phillips to admit she was wrong.
Phillips criticised the gender makeup of Labour's Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in January 2016.
In March 2021, following the murder of Sarah Everard
On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police offic ...
, 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".
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
The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common to the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level coll ...
for sex work.
Online abuse
Phillips is frequently targeted for abuse by anonymous users on social media. In 2015, she was subjected to rape threats on social media following her objections to International Men's Day. 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. After she complained to Twitter and was told the tweets did not break its rules, she accused the company of "colluding" with her abusers.
In response to the murder
"The Murder" is a cinematic score written and composed by Bernard Herrmann for the horror- thriller film '' Psycho'' (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The score, its second movement in particular, is well recognized as one of the most famous ...
of Labour MP Jo Cox
Helen Joanne Cox ( Leadbeater; 22 June 1974 – 16 June 2016) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from May 2015 until her murder in June 2016. She was a member of the Labour Party.
Born in B ...
, in June 2016, Phillips stated that it "makes me want to fight harder". She wrote that they both regularly received online abuse and threats. In August 2016, she told ''The World at One
''The World at One'', or ''WATO'' ("what-oh") for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, produced by BBC News, which is currently broadcast from 13:00 to 13:45 from Monday to Friday. The programme de ...
'' on Radio 4 that a "panic room
''Panic Room'' is a 2002 American thriller film directed by David Fincher. The film stars Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart as a mother and daughter whose new home is invaded by burglars, played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoaka ...
" was being installed in her constituency office which now has an alarm system, and that improved locks have been fitted at her home.
In an interview with ''Stylist
Stylist can refer to:
Occupations
* Automotive stylist or car stylist, a person involved in designing the appearance and ergonomics of automobiles
* Food stylist, a person who makes food look attractive in photographs
* Hair stylist, a person w ...
'', 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".
2015 parliament
Phillips was selected from an all-women shortlist
All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political p ...
to contest Birmingham Yardley
Birmingham Yardley is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jess Phillips of the Labour Party.
Yardley Rural District was annexed to Birmingham under the 1911 ...
in June 2013, which was then represented by John Hemming John Hemming may refer to:
*John Hemming (historian) (born 1935), British explorer and author
*John Hemming (politician) (born 1960), British politician
See also
*John Heminges, co-publisher of Shakespeare's works after his death
*John Hemings
Jo ...
of the Liberal Democrats. In the 2015 general election, with an 11.7% swing away from the Liberal Democrats, Phillips was elected as a Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP), receiving 17,129 votes (41.6%) and achieving a 6,595-vote majority (16.0%) over her closest rival. Her maiden speech concerned homelessness
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
and "improving ritain€™s response to victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse in all its forms." In the 2015 Labour leadership election, Phillips nominated Yvette Cooper for Labour leader and Tom Watson for deputy leader.
Phillips was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...
(PPS) to Lucy Powell, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, in September 2015.
In June 2016, she resigned as PPS to Lucy Powell, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, following the resignation of Powell and other Shadow Cabinet members over the leadership of Corbyn. 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. She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
In September 2016, she was elected chair of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party (WPLP), defeating her predecessor Dawn Butler, considered a Corbyn ally.
2017 parliament
Phillips criticised the calling of the 2017 snap election. She was reselected as the Labour candidate for Birmingham Yardley
Birmingham Yardley is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jess Phillips of the Labour Party.
Yardley Rural District was annexed to Birmingham under the 1911 ...
, while her predecessor as MP for the seat John Hemming was reselected by the Liberal Democrats, in what was reported as a "grudge match". Phillips subsequently gained 25,398 votes (57.1%), increasing her majority to 16,574 votes (37.2%) over the second-place Conservative candidate, with the Lib Dems finishing in third place. Upon her victory, she continued her criticisms of Hemming.
Following the 2017 snap general election, Phillips said the Women's PLP would co-ordinate to promote policies beneficial to women in the context of a hung parliament.
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.
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
Kelvin Peter Hopkins (born 22 August 1941) is a British politician. He was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Luton North in 1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct were ...
, stating that she would "cut up her membership card" if the alleged victim was questioned by Hopkins as part of the investigation.
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
Merit Group plc is a British publishing holding company founded in 2001. It is company number 04267888. Its largest shareholder is the Conservative politician and businessman Lord Michael Ashcroft.
It was formerly known as Huveaux plc (from 20 ...
, which had been purchased by Conservative Party donor and former vice-chairman Michael Ashcroft
Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, (born 4 March 1946) is a British-Belizean businessman, pollster and politician. He is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Ashcroft founded Michael A. Ashcroft Associates in 1972 and is ...
, earning an annual salary of £8,000 for two hours' work per month.
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."
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.
In 2019, a controversy emerged as local Muslim parents in Saltley, Birmingham, associated with the Parkfield Community School, objected to lessons on relationships and inclusivity (including but not limited to teaching acceptance of LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
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, while others misunderstood the lessons to be teaching children about gay sex. Phillips spoke out publicly against the objecting parents, claiming to feel "bereft about this" and that the material was in her view not "inappropriate." Phillips called for an exclusion zone to prevent protests outside Anderton Park Primary School in Balsall Heath against lessons on inclusivity.
2019 parliament
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. In November 2019, it was announced Phillips would stand for the Labour Party in Birmingham Yardley in the 2019 general election. She went on to win the seat once more, with 23,379 votes in her favour (securing a vote share of 54.8%). While the vote share represented a 2.3% decline from 2017, this was relatively small compared to other constituencies: nationwide the Labour Party vote share in 2019 was 7.9% lower than in 2017.
Leadership bid
Following Corbyn's decision to step down as Labour leader after the party's defeat in the 2019 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
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) ...
(the Shadow Brexit Secretary
In British politics, the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, or informally Shadow Brexit Secretary, was a position within the opposition's shadow cabinet that dealt with issues surrounding the UK withdrawal from the EU. T ...
) and Rebecca Long-Bailey (the ).
Phillips announced her bid for the leadership
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...
on 3 January 2020 in Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...
, a seat the Conservative party had gained from Labour in the election. 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." 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 and subsequently announced her support for Lisa Nandy
Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010.
N ...
.
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. She resigned from her position following a vote on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war on 15 November 2023. 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." It was the first time she had served on the frontbench.
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.
Personal life
Phillips lives in Moseley and is married to Tom Phillips; the couple have two sons. Phillips employed her husband, previously a lift engineer, as constituency support manager until February 2019.
Former professional footballer Kevin Phillips is her husband's cousin. In 2021, she said that she had had the human papillomavirus
Human papillomavirus infection (HPV infection) is caused by a DNA virus from the ''Papillomaviridae'' family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and res ...
in her 20s. 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.
On 10 December 2021, Phillips presented an episode of the BBC's satirical news quiz '' Have I Got News for You''.
Bibliography
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Jess
1981 births
Living people
Politicians from Birmingham, West Midlands
Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Anti-domestic violence activists
Councillors in Birmingham, West Midlands
English feminists
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Labour Party (UK) councillors
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Labour Friends of Israel
People educated at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls
British socialist feminists
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
21st-century British women politicians
Women councillors in England