When I read this yesterday: ‘Asked if Labour could win [the next general election] she [Jess Phillips] said: “The honest answer is: ‘no, absolutely not;’ my initial reaction was curiosity.
So please tell me Jess, how long have you had this gift of prophecy? Long odds betting must be a nice little earner on top of your ‘meager’ MP’s salary of £74,000 plus expenses. I expect you had a little flutter on Jeremy Corbyn winning the leadership when it was still a 200/1 bet. And what odds did you get when you placed your bet on the Tories winning a majority? Must have a nice little nest egg by now.
Ok yes, I’m being sarcastic, but that’s because none of us can predict the outcome of the next general election, particularly in such uncertain times. The ripples set in motion by the financial crash are altering the electoral landscape across the world in unpredictable ways. Austerity is biting hard, and recent polls suggest public support for cuts are flagging. Throw into the mix the refugee crisis and the European referendum – the results of which may trigger yet another Independence referendum in Scotland – and the electoral horizon couldn’t be foggier. Yet there’s the voice of doom, Jess Phillips, confidently predicting Labour cannot win in four years time!
If I said I was angry at Jess Phillips over this I’d be lying. The negativity from our own MPs is so predictable by now I’m starting to grow resigned to it. Clearly for them, the real enemy is Corbyn, not the Conservatives, which is why their guns are so often trained on him. Besides, Jess and her fellow plotters want me and others like me to get angry. Anger is mobilising in short bursts, but when you feel constantly angry about a situation over which you have limited control, it wears you out, exhausts you, depresses you. I’ve seen the trap now so I will do my best to side step it. What I will do though is call them out on their behaviour (when I feel moved enough to do so via this blog), and/or report them to the chairman of the Labour Party for unprofessional conduct. It might not achieve much but it’s good to vent.
The complaint I’m planning to write about Jess Phillips will probably go something like this: “It is highly inappropriate for a sitting Labour MP to spread such blanket negativity about her own party’s electoral chances in the press. Clearly she has done so in an attempt to hamper Labour’s chances, because frankly, if I’d been a potential Labour voter reading the paper that day, I’d probably think to myself, ‘What’s the point voting Labour when their own MPs say they don’t have a chance?'”
I must confess there was one section of Jess’s comment that tickled me. It was the part where she says, ‘the honest answer is,’ because I’ve never heard a least honest answer in my life. An honest answer from Jess might have gone something like this: ‘Asked if Labour could win Jess Phillips said: “The honest answer is I ruddy well hope not; not as long as Corbyn is leader. If Yvette Cooper – my choice for leader – had won, she’d have given my career a nice leg up. I’m very ambitious you see so it still wrankles. I’m not sure what my futures going to be in this new version of Labour. The sooner us plotters can get shot of Jeremy, and those lefty members that will hopefully leave in their droves if we oust him, the sooner I can get my career back on track.
Not that it’s all about me. Everyone knows Jeremy’s not leadership material. A leader should be an arrogant careerist with an ego the size of Mars who loves the sound of their own voice. That’s just not Jeremy is it?’
And then with a weary despairing sigh we could have replied, ‘No Jess it’s not. And that’s why we chose him.’
Turning the Tide 
I totally agree! I wish I understood better why the Parliamentary Labour Party refuse to support a leader who has ignited so many people’s interest in politics. If there is a good reason, I’d love to know it because as it stands, opposition to Corbyn from within his own party appears to be sour grapes – personal rather than principled. It won’t be Corbyn that loses the election for Labour it will the self-serving MPs that refuse to communicate with to their membership.
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People like Jess are called narcissists, there’s a handy little club on the far corner of the Labour backbenches, its called the Selfie corner.
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Winning elections is the job of the Labour Party. Being a members talking shop is an interesting by-product. Packed halls stuffed with the converted will not alone not translate into winning seats. JC should take heed of the MP s who seek not only to serve the party but also serve and communicate with the public.
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“JC should take heed of the MP s who seek not only to serve the party” but their own bank balances. There, I’ve corrected it for you.
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Reblogged this on DaveD's Blog.
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Jess Philips is quite simply a liability, how she ever got selected is beyond me.
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It was a “fixed”selection, she was picked up by Birmingham Labour Party to be the candidate. She was being promoted, canvassing and supported as the candidate by councillors, months before the selection procedure was open. Her literature mailed out before the selection opened was emblazoned with Labour party logo’s and format and suggesting that she was already the candidate (I spoke to numerous members). The postal vote (notably corrupt in this area) was only counted, checked etc by the councillor who is now her office manager.
That’s how she was selected….
During the hustings events she contradicted herself repeatedly and answered all questions with a little tale about her. her family etc making out she was working class, poverty stricken etc (said similar in Westminster). Her dad was an English teacher, her mum worked for the NHS… as CEO of South Birmingham Health Trust and as owner of an Events planning company that used her links to the NHS.
Jess as she told me “liked being a councillor because the money help[ed to pay her £1/4 million mortgage (nice if you can afford it). Yes, she did work for women’s aid as Development Officer responsible for securing funding. (That must be where she met all her 1000’s “victims”). Basically, it’s all b*ll*cks !!!
The Yardley clp are trying hard to get me out of the party because I’m malicious because I call a spade a shovel and will and do call her a liar, who over exaggerates her experience, as George Galloway rightly described her, she is a fantasist. I was on Brighton beach when Galloway was filming I never heard any shouts of “Rape Apologist” Ironically coming from a “knife crime” apologist, a feminist and protector of women’s issues. I doubt even the “rape threat” claims were made up because she never followed them through. Any self proclaimed protector of “women victims” of DV/ SV would have done if not for herself (she is rather large) but for other victims of online bullying… That to me was unforgivable.
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I was born in Yardley and lived there until I was 11. During my childhood it was a Labour area and my parents were socialists. So when Labour took the seat last year I was so pleased. Oh dear then I heard the MP it was such a come down. I realised she was one of those Me Me Me politicians and I find her excruciatingly embarrassing. I voted for Jeremy like most people I know did. My son a Labour supporter and his partner joined the Labour Party when Jeremy became leader as many supporters did. The Labour MP for Yardley has no respect for Labour Party members and she has insulted us and has acted against our leader. Hopefully she will a find career that suits her better. I can think of a number of terms for her but I had stop there!
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Jess Phillips should read btl on Conservative Home, they’re terrified that Cameron and Osborne are making a 2020 win impossible. In fact, they’re terrified for the future of the Conservative Party … but of course, Jess Phillips is terrified of a JC win too.
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This is interesting. I don’t venture into ConservativeHome because I value my soul, but if I didn’t, I’d be keeping a close eye on what Tories say when they think no one is paying attention (i.e. not the Telegraph comment section, which is right-wing peacocking at its most impenetrable).
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Her disloyalty & negativity to the Labour Party should be a reason for her to resign as her heart clearly isn’t in the job. Jeremy Corbyn was preferred to the other three candidates for Leader and still is. The people who made the mistakes in the previous Labour Government should be identified and apologize – it is they who are undermining Labour both in Parliament & the Media
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What they forgot to add to the£74,000 pounds Jess Philips get is £16,000 pounds because she is a Councillor is till May. It would be nice if she attended a meeting instead of opening her mouth all the time. Just keep quiet for once. You might get relected if you do.
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Thank God she can’t keep her mouth shut as no true Labour voter wants her anywhere near the party.
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As I have said before about Ms Phillips, nothing more than a self promoting buffoon. Jess come clean and join the C*nservatives.
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I despair at the right of the Labour Party who believe the status quo was acceptable, We have lost 168 MPs since 2001 because of them and no sign that that would have improved, I would suggest to Jess if she wants her career to Progress (pun intended) she would embrace Corbyn and try another tack, the tack she is taking is taking her into very stormy waters that she cannot win.
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Oh … Gwen, giving it out there!!! … What do we expect from a “fixed” selection but an insult to the party 😉
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating and commented:
Well said Cheryl, another insightful piece from you.
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Reblogged this on My Poems, Thoughts, Dreams and Questions.
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Reblogged this on I Am Iamhanuman's Blog.
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Personally, I would want to know who lobbies her.
And I would want to know this about all Labour MPs right now, because I strongly suspect that the Labour MPs who are most anti-Corbyn will be the ones who would be least harmed by Labour staying out of power – the ones who get little top-ups to their earnings from BAE and so forth.
Labour out of power with pro-corporate policies will pay those MPs a lot more money than Labour *in* power with pro-voter policies.
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Poor Jess.
Hitched her wagon to the arse-end of the New Labour experiment just as everything went pear-shaped.
Having found herself at the wrong end of political history she decided that shit-stirring from the inside would be the next best thing to actually doing her job (opposing the Tories).
The flattering whispers in her ear from the right-wing press made it all sound so appealing. She’ll be cast off like an old shoe when she’s outlived her usefulness, of course.
But try telling youngsters these days….
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Er…. One of a few Labour MPs who actually gained a seat, a local person who fought a principled and grassroots campaign. She’s Labour’s future. What makes people think her principles aren’t as strong as Corbyn and his accolytes? Principle without power is no principle at all.
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😂🤣😂🤣Thanks for the laugh, it was a joke, right?
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Thanks for this excellent piece. Jess Phillips is an embarrassment to the Labour Party. I cringe every time her name comes up. She is a young woman with an inflated view of herself. Watching her on BBCQT a little while ago was downright uncomfortable – a very poor example of a Labour MP. Time will tell with regards to 2020 but one thing is for sure Jess Phillips will do little to effect the outcome of the election. A terrible, terrible waste of space.
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Thank God for Jess Phillips. Someone needs to tell it how it is. Corbyn is hated by the electorate, he is incompetent and the press will justifiably go to town on the IRA supportive comments of the Shadow Chancellor when the election comes. Someone needs to say how it is – we are heading for a disaster in 2020. Corbyn must change or he must go. Catastrophe looms. If you can live with that, so be it. But think about how we will let down. If there had been no 1997 government there would have been no minimum wage and no tax credits to protect. No new schools or hospitals.
Corbyn takes us further from power. Well done Jess for saying so.
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Odd how the membership of the party has rocketed. upto 400,000 last count…
Under Blair over 200,000 members left, he splintered the Labour movement, led many Trade Unions to either diusaffilate or slash their funding to the party due to his attacks on public sector workers.
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I remember a cartoon character that resembles Jess Phillips his name – Foghorn Leghorn.
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Jess tells it like it is, so It’s hardly surprising the Corbyn fan club gets hot under the collar. Even so, she is far more restrained and circumspect than I would be. Here’s my prediction: if Corbyn remains as leader, Labour will go down to its most decisive and catastrophic defeat in its 116-year history. You are quite right to point out that the world is changing rapidly and disconcertingly. And this is exactly why Corbyn is so ill-equipped to lead a modern political party. His politics are fossilised in the world of the 1980s urban left. In the face of momentous political, social and economic change, he has never adapted his own positions. (The only exception is on the EU, under immense pressure from his union backers and we see that he’s incapable of saying anything relevant or coherent, as he doesn’t actually believe it.)
So snipe all you like at Jess. Her crystal ball, I feel, is rather clearer than yours.
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How then do you explain the massive growth in the party’s membership from 200,000 at election time last May to around 400,000 now?
Either Jeremy Corbyn has hyponitised the masses or there is something about his principles, ideas and his decency.
Jess Phillips has alienated large sections of the membership through her attacks on JC, fine if she kerpt her opinions internally within the party rather than splashing them across the rightwing press.
After 2 General Election defeats of offering Tory lite policies and getting pasted at the Polks for it, surely its wiser to try something different?
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I would personally love for someone like Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister of this country. So, bearing that in mind, I hope you’ll hear me out.
What you’ve done in this article is try to find the “easiest way out” of acknowledging Jess’s concerns. You’ve decided her actions are driven by ambition for her own career, because that way, her views can be discredited. I’ve listened to Jess Phillips in interviews, and I strongly believe that you’re wrong about her motivations. First of all, she isn’t a career politician – it was working with vulnerable people that inspired her to go into politics. Secondly, she has spoken out about the lack of honesty in politics, and her convictions on this are undeniably genuine. She had a video in the Guardian online recently, titled “I thought I could be a politician and a human being. I was wrong” and it is really worth watching. In it, she talks about her frustration at the way politicians are essentially forced to toe to party line, even if it means being dishonest – which has driven people to distrust politicians, and rightly so. It’s clear from listening to Jess that she is a person who believes she should speak her honest mind, even if it makes her unpopular. I can understand peoples’ frustration at Jess for the fact that she would rather tell it like it is than protect her party’s image – but they should at least accept that this is what Jess is doing, and shouldn’t try to make up reasons to discredit her.
Personally, I like Corbyn, and agree with him on most things. But I do not represent the general public, and I would be lying if I said I believed Jeremy was going to become Prime Minister. I can’t deny the facts. He has very low approval ratings among the public already. Recently, the Jeremy Corbyn supporters Facebook group (Jeremy Corbyn for PM) shared some data which shows how Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters’ views and priorities compare to those of the Labour Party membership’s as a whole, and also the general public’s. They were celebrating that Corbyn’s supporters’ priorities aligned well with the Labour Party membership’s, but what they ignored was the more revealing fact that Corbyn’s supporters’ priorities did not align well with the general public’s. It is this inconvenient fact that will make it incredibly difficult to get the public behind Jeremy in the 2020 elections.
Of course, an optimist would say “but Corbyn can CHANGE public opinion”. The optimist in me wants this to be true. But do I really believe it will happen? Honestly, I don’t. I haven’t given up – I’m still going to do what I can to support Corbyn, in the hopes that we can pull off a miracle. In fact, during the leadership race, I wanted – on an emotional level – him to become leader of the party, because his views aligned closely with mine. Of course it’s appealing to have someone as leader who you agree with, and that is the reason he was made leader; people followed their hearts. But that doesn’t mean that it was the best strategic move for Labour; the one which would give them the best chance of getting into a position of power, where they could make a real difference.
Jess Phillips knows that the prospect of Jeremy becoming PM is remote. For this reason, I think she feels like the party doesn’t have much to lose by voicing her frustrations about him. Perhaps she is damaging Labour’s chances further by doing so, and I sympathise with those who are frustrated. But I believe that, at the end of the day, her frustrations don’t come from a bad place – they come from her passion for wanting to change the country for the better.
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She’s a non careerist who wants to be leader? http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/jess-phillips-i-am-interested-in-being-labour-leader/
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My point is that I think she’s in politics for the right reasons – to promote social justice. I think this comes over in the interview she did with Owen Jones. It’s a good watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TcLhDTUxVs
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I’m not disputing she cares about certain issues, but she sadly doesn’t care enough not to deliberately turn voters off voting Labour by filling them with hopelessness and despair about our electoral chances. Still I’m sure she’ll be well rewarded in the post Corbyn Labour Party she and her fellow plotters are hoping to create. Maybe she’ll even run for leader.
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Basically, before she went into politics she worked for a domestic and sexual abuse charity, and she says that it was her experience of how things there changed for the worse under the Tory government that motivated her to go into politics. So she doesn’t meet the typical criteria for a “career politician”, who doesn’t have experience in the real world.
When Owen asked if she had ambitions to be leader, she said she was ambitious *for the Labour Party* and that if she thought that her being the leader would help people to like the party then she would do it. That’s a perfectly legitimate reason to want to be leader, and doesn’t suggest to me that she’s only in politics for the glory.
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Sorry Joanna, I respect you admire her but I don’t anymore. This is the second blog post I’ve felt compelled to write about her. If you search you can read the first one.
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Oops, I didn’t see your last comment before posting the second. I do agree that there is a contradiction in that she claims to be pragmatic and to want to do anything to help Labour gain popularity, yet she then undermines it with what she says. I suppose a truly pragmatic person is a person who toes the party line, even if they disagree with it, sad as that is. And like she said in the Guardian video, maybe she was just naive to think she could be any different. The fact that that is the case does make me despair rather, though.
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I agree with your comments entirely. Jess Phillips referred to JC as a “man” in her outburst against the decriminalisation of prostitution. On twitter she refers to herself as an ” on domestic abuse. She worked as a manager in Women’s Aid. I have known someone with zero expertise get a manager’s post in a domestic violence project. I asked her on twitter if she had accredited qualifications in domestic/sexual abuse and she failed to answer. My partner is an expert with 20 years experience in the “fiels” She has worked in a women’s prison supporting women who have suffered domestic and sexual abuse. She has a totally different opinion to Jess Phillips on decriminalising prostitution, a view in keeping with that of Jeremy Corbyn. Ms Phillips is a carrerist
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I made a complete mess of my reply sending by mistake with typos. Jess Phillips is a careerist, soundbite politician. On the twitter prostitution debate she was quick to reply until her “expertise” was questioned. Her attacks on the party leader are a disgrace and do nothing to increase our chances of winning an election
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She’s one of the handful of Labour MPs who actually gained a seat at the local election. She’s local to her seat and fought a grassroots campaign, engaging with both members and the electorate.
She clearly desperately wants a Labour victory but perhaps she’s spoken to her constituents and seen the latest polls….
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