41 Facts About Jess Phillips

Jessica Rose Phillips is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley since 2015.

Jess Phillips supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 leadership election.

Jess Phillips was a candidate for Labour leader in the 2020 leadership election, but withdrew early in the contest.

Since 2019, Jess Phillips has received the second highest income on top of her MP's salary amongst Labour Party MPs.

Jessica Rose Phillips was born on 9 October 1981 in Birmingham, West Midlands.

The youngest of four children, Jess Phillips is the daughter of Stewart Trainor, a teacher, and Jean Trainor, an NHS administrator who rose to become deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation and chair of South Birmingham Mental Health Trust.

Jess Phillips studied economic and social history and social policy at the University of Leeds from 2000 to 2003.

Jess Phillips worked for a period for her parents at their company, Healthlinks Event Management Services.

From 2010 onwards, Jess Phillips worked for the Women's Aid Federation of England as a business development manager, responsible for managing refuges for victims of domestic abuse in Sandwell in the West Midlands.

Jess Phillips left the Labour Party during the years of Tony Blair's leadership, rejoining after the 2010 general election.

Jess Phillips was then appointed as the victims' champion at Birmingham City Council, lobbying police and criminal justice organisations on behalf of victims.

Jess Phillips served on the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel.

Jess Phillips verbally clashed with fellow Labour MP Diane Abbott on 14 September 2015 over the gender composition of Jeremy Corbyn's first Shadow Cabinet.

Jess Phillips is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

In October 2015, Jess Phillips caused social media outrage after she mocked the Conservative MP Philip Davies for trying to get a debate about International Men's Day.

Jess Phillips 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.

Jess Phillips insisted any "patriarchal culture" must be challenged, but the UK should not "rest on its laurels" when two women are murdered every week.

Journalist Joan Smith criticised these remarks and asked Jess Phillips to admit she was wrong.

Jess Phillips criticised the gender makeup of Labour's Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in January 2016.

In March 2021, following the murder of Sarah Everard, Jess Phillips read out the names of all women killed in the previous year where a man was convicted.

Jess Phillips said "killed women are not vanishingly rare, killed women are common".

Jess Phillips is frequently targeted for abuse by anonymous users on social media.

Jess Phillips wrote that they both regularly received online abuse and threats.

Jess Phillips was selected from an all-women shortlist to contest Birmingham Yardley in June 2013, which was then represented by John Hemming of the Liberal Democrats.

Jess Phillips was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lucy Powell, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, in September 2015.

In July 2016, Jess 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.

Jess Phillips supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.

Jess Phillips 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".

Jess Phillips subsequently gained 25,398 votes, increasing her majority to 16,574 votes over the second-place Conservative candidate, with the Lib Dems finishing in third place.

In July 2017, Jess Phillips called for a review into elections for chairs of House of Commons select committees due to the relatively low number of female candidates.

Jess Phillips 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 October 2019, Jess Phillips said she thought Labour was unlikely to win a majority in a general election.

Jess Phillips 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 Jess Phillips would stand for the Labour Party in Birmingham Yardley in the 2019 general election.

Jess Phillips went on to win the seat once more, with 23,379 votes in her favour.

Jess 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.

Jess Phillips was the third candidate to announce, following Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis.

Jess 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.

In May 2022 Jess Phillips narrowly avoided being referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards having been investigated by the Commissioner for Standards for repeatedly failing to register interests within the required timescale.

Jess Phillips employed her husband, previously a lift engineer, as constituency support manager until February 2019.

On 10 December 2021, Jess Phillips presented an episode of the BBC's satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You.