Jess Phillips: Labour backbencher set to announce run for party leader
Written by News on 03/01/2020
Outspoken Labour MP Jess Phillips is set to confirm she will stand to replace Jeremy Corbyn as party leader, Sky News understands.
The prominent backbencher will become the latest opposition politician to announce she is throwing her hat in the ring for the top job, with others expected to declare shortly, including the early frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer.
A critic of Mr Corbyn, the 38-year-old had already hinted heavily she would enter the race to lead Labour, calling for the party to “to try something different”.
Sky News political correspondent Tamara Cohen tweeted: “Jess Phillips will announce her leadership bid tonight, I understand.
“Member of her team says she has enough MP nominations.”
The straight-talking Birmingham Yardley MP was first elected to parliament in 2015.
Although she has held no frontbench role, Ms Phillips has captured attention at Westminster with her campaigning on equality issues and tackling violence against women.
In the wake of Labour’s drubbing at the polls in December, she argued the party needed “to radically change”.
In her re-election speech, she said: “The reality is that the Labour Party has got to do a huge amount more than just think that getting rid of one man… will just simply make it OK.”
Before being elected, Ms Phillips worked for Women’s Aid, supporting female victims of domestic abuse.
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In the first poll of Labour Party members since the election, Ms Phillips was placed third in the race to succeed Mr Corbyn.
It suggested Sir Keir had opened up a solid lead over his rivals, with shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, the favoured successor of the Corbyn camp, in second place.
So far, only shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, and the shadow treasury minister, Clive Lewis, have formally announced they will stand for the party leadership.
The official contest is yet to get under way, with Labour’s ruling national executive meeting on Monday to agree the rules and the timetable for the leadership election.
(c) Sky News 2020: Jess Phillips: Labour backbencher set to announce run for party leader
