Jess Phillips was met with boos and jeers as it was announced she had narrowly won her seat in Birmingham Yardley ovenright. The Labour MP slammed the ‘nastiness’ that met her General Election 2024 campaign
Election 2024: Jess Phillips met with jeers after winning her seat
Jess Phillips has slammed the “nastiness” that dogged her campaign as she revealed a female member of her campaign staff had their tyres slashed.
“You know what none of those actions do? Save a single child in Gaza,” a visibly animated Ms Phillips told ITV’s Good Morning Britain. She also said there were also “overtones” of misogyny and threats of violence directed at her during her campaign.
Ms Phillips was re-elected to her Birmingham Yardley seat with a narrow majority of just 693. It was a General Election result that echoed a number of seats up and down the country as high numbers of pro-Palestine voters appeared to turn away from Labour candidates. Shadow cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth lost his seat, while the usual safe seats in Bethnal Green and Stepney and Ilford North were won narrowly by Rushanara Ali and Wes Streeting respectively.
Jeers were heard as Ms Phillips’ vote count was read out, met with a sarcastic curtsey by the MP since 2015.
“I understand that a strong woman standing up to you is met with such reticence.” Chants of “Free Palestine” were then heard before Ms Phillips asked if the culprits could be thrown out, calling it the “worst” election she had stood in.
Ms Phillips said the family of Jo Cox, the Labour MP murdered in her constitiuency of Batley and Spen in 2016, wanted to come and campaign with her but she felt she couldn’t allow it.
Speaking to GMB, Ms Phillips added it had been a ”pretty horrendous” experience but “I won and so I will be cheerful about that.”
Ms Phillips previously resigned from the shadow front bench as the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding in November last year as a number of Labour members called on Sir Keir Starmer to back a vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. MPs voted to reject an SNP motion calling for a ceasefire – Ms Phillips voted for the motion.
“I don’t feel like I am rebelling against the Labour Party, I feel like I am taking a position with my heart my head and my constituents,” she had said, citing the concerns of Muslim voters in her constituency. Around 35 per cent of voters in Birmingham Yardley are Muslim.
Following the General Election result, Ms Phillips added that the situation in Palestine – Israel has continued its operation against Hamas in the region – had “100 percent” played a role in the tight result.
A ceasefire in the region has not yet been reached, but negotiations are ongoing. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the war has risen to over 38,000.
It “played a massive role in my seat,” she said. She continued: “It is really sad that the nastiness has gone on in my election campaign, no progress has been made for the people of Palestine.
“I very much hope the incoming Lab government, who have said they will recognise the state of Palestine, we can actually start making progress. All we have had is fire, rather than anything that resembles any sort of progress.”
Asked if Sir Keir would face questions from voters over his stance on Gaza – the Labour leader called for a ceasefire in February – Ms Phillips said the soon-to-be prime minister “has to answer different question to the one I have to answer.”
