Politics Home Article | Jess Phillips Resigns As Home Office Minister

(Alamy)

2 min read29 min

Phillips, the safeguarding minister, wrote that she believed Starmer was a “decent man” but no longer had confidence in him.

She is the most senior minister to date to resign from the government so far. The former minister is also a close ally of Wes Streeting, who is expected to run for the Labour leadership if Starmer steps down and a contest takes place. 

Phillips’s resignation plunges the prime minister into further chaos after 86 MPs have called for him to resign and set out a timetable for his departure.

The letter, first published by SkyNews, claimed the prime minister had no “desire to have an argument”, which left opportunities for progress on clamping down on violence against women and girls “stalled and delayed.”

It read: “I think you are a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things. However I have seen first-hand how that is not enough. The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed.

“Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves. 91 per cent of online child sex abuse is self-generated by children groomed, tricked and exploited into abuse.

“The technology exists to stop children being able to take naked images of themselves.

“We could make this possible on every phone and device in the country. We could stop this abuse. It has taken me a year to get you to agree to even threaten to legislate in this space. Not legislate, just threaten. This is the definition of incremental change. Nothing bold about it.”

Phillips added: The announcement was meant to be in March, I’m still on a promise this will happen in June, I’ve given up believing it. How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dully dallied and worried about tech bosses?

“This is just one example.”

Phillips said she wanted a Labour government to work but she could not see the change the country expected and could not serve as a minister under the present leadership.