MP for Birmingham Yardley also says she will struggle to remain in party if current political atmosphere does not change

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Labour MP Jess Phillips has revealed that she is having a “panic room” fitted in her constituency office following a series of threats to her safety.

The MP for Birmingham Yardley also said she would struggle to remain in the party if the current political atmosphere did not dissipate.

“It would be very, very difficult for me that if Jeremy Corbyn wins and something doesn’t dramatically change in the way people are being treated online, in the streets, our security,” she said. “I can’t imagine why I would want to stay somewhere where I am so obviously not welcome.”



However, she later told the Guardian that she was not planning to quit.

There are no female Labour mayoral candidates. It’s a leadership problem | Jess Phillips Read more

Speaking on Radio 4’s World At One, Phillips also spoke about being “cavalier” in her attitude towards personal safety, especially following the killing of her friend and the MP Jo Cox.

She said her house had been “overhauled” by locksmiths.

“There is a panic room being fitted in my office, I now walk around with an alarm system that means people can listen to conversations,” she said.

Phillips, who has been a vocal critic of Corbyn’s leadership, said she did not feel welcome by “huge swaths of people” in the Labour party.

“Every day I receive messages that I’m not good enough, that I should lose my job,” she said, calling that the tame attacks.



“Someone thought it was funny to mock up a picture of a woman with a spear through her heart and put my head on it,” she added. “I’ve got two small kids, I’m a human being.”

The MP also complained about Labour’s inability to appoint women to senior positions, saying the party had some soul-searching to do on the matter.

Phillips said she would be forever disappointed by its failure to put women forward for the top job. She said her party had more female MPs than others, but that the Conservatives “have a march on us” with their two women prime ministers. She added that she had allowed Tory MPs “free rein to crow and mock me” over the issue.