Labour ministers could ‘mess up’ but will be ‘more honest’ – Jess Phillips

Labour ministers are “going to mess up” and “disappoint” the public, a member of Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has said.

But Jess Phillips MP insisted her party would take a “more honest approach” than their predecessors – whom she accused of “gaslighting”.

Ms Phillips, the  minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls also said she was “hopeful” for progress in dealing with male violence against women, adding that doing so was “undoubtedly a mission of the new Government”.

Her comments came as she spoke at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she told of how she was surprised to be made a minister following Labour’s election victory in July.

Ms Phillips said Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, had called her while she was in London waiting for an Uber in the pouring rain.

“It was quite surprising, I wasn’t expecting it,” the MP added.

Her appointment came after she quit Labour’s front bench team in November 2023, so she could vote for an SNP motion in the Commons calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

She said she was a “bit surprised” to be invited to be part of the Government, saying: “I hadn’t expected to be asked back because you have to stay out in the cold a bit when you are a rebel.”

However, she said that the fact that “Keir Starmer gave me, the naughty girl, the job back” showed Labour’s intent on tackling male violence against women.

She stated: “Even just in the Home Office, let alone I feel it across Government, there is this turn, this switch towards this thing that everybody has been talking about being the priority.

“Culture is actually ahead of politics on violence against women and girls, the nation has tired of it and wants it to be a public priority, certainly but not just exclusively the women in our country.

“To then now watch the Government now switch its focus and direct it on to it, I already feel really, really positive.”

But when speaking about the new ministerial team under Sir Keir she warned people: “I think some of them are going to mess up over the next years, and they are going to disappoint you, that is the truth.”

But she added that “overall it is going to be a more honest approach” from the Government.

She claimed under the previous Tory administration “it feels like politicians have been spitting in our face and telling us its raining, which is a funnier way of saying gaslighting you”.

The Birmingham Yardley MP added: “They will be like ‘we’re spending more on the NHS than ever before’ and then you spent 19 hours and leave the accident and emergency unit not having any treatment.”

She told the event her latest book, Let’s Be Honest, had been written after she went to A&E at a hospital in Birmingham and received “genuinely worse than healthcare I have watched being provided in war zones”.

Ms Phillips said: “I just went f****** apeshit and started writing.

“I was really cross at my experience, and I got better treatment than everybody else because of who I am, and it was still so bad.”