Labour MP Jess Phillips: Why I’ll never become one of the Westminster elite Jess Phillips has almost lost her voice when I meet her in her Westminster office. She is on a “ridiculous […]

Jess Phillips has almost lost her voice when I meet her in her Westminster office. She is on a “ridiculous fasting thing”, she explains, which leaves her croaking until she has a hot drink.

A cup of tea arrives and soon she has found it again. That distinctive voice, and how she uses it, is what Phillips has become known for in the short time she has been an MP. Deeper than she would like and marked by a Birmingham accent, “the most derided brogue in the country and one of the rarest in Parliament”, her voice is a tool to foster relationships and a weapon to defeat her opponents.

Unlike many politicians in Parliament, her voice cuts through.

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The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley did not attend Eton or grow up bathed in privilege like many of her counterparts. Birmingham is still very much her home, the place where she was raised as a staunch socialist by parents who gifted her with a Labour party membership on her fourteenth birthday. She spent five years working with survivors of domestic abuse for the charity Women’s Aid in Birmingham before securing her own office in Westminster.

Phillips is very, very funny. She swears a lot, laughs a lot and doesn’t hold back. This is both a relief and a feat considering the enduring misogynistic abuse and rape threats she has been subjected to.

Phillips, 35, had only been an MP for six months when she was contacted by a literary agent and asked if she had ever considered writing a book. She went away with her family that weekend and together they devised a range of genres she could potentially tap into for her literary debut. “My husband was very much on the sexy vampires [theme] because he feels that is a lucrative path to follow,” she grins. “[But] we were like ‘we think it’s been done’, so we were trying to come up with ‘sexy zombies’ or another form of teen angst.”

I hope all those men who hate me read it

Instead, she produced a book that is part guide, part memoir on what it means to be a woman, and part rallying cry to protect the sisterhood that is such an inherent part of this experience. Everywoman: One Woman’s Truth About Speaking the Truth, is also fundamentally inclusive. But will men read it?

“I think politically motivated men will read it,” says Phillips. “What I really, really, really hope is that all those men who hate me read it,” she adds, smirking. “I really hope they will go and spend their money on hating me. That would make me genuinely happy.”

To keep the authenticity of my voice I have to not become this place and stay the person that I was

Phillips is one of a number of female MPs to receive abuse “all day, every day, especially on Twitter”. And it is getting worse. She now meets regularly with representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Google to discuss how to tackle cyber abuse. “I think they are now waking up to the fact that it’s the bottom line. People like me will stop using it because it’s not worth it.”

Hate mail is categorised by incident in special folders in her inbox and stays there “until I can be arsed to deal with them”. Categories include “Twitter rape comments, Ken Livingstone, Question Time… and then just ‘General Hate.” Phillips bursts out laughing at the last category. Speaking about Nigel Farage also attracts a few “crazies”, she adds. “They’re usually too stupid to be anonymous, which I like.”

When I’ve got parity, you can have your debate

Abuse also spiked after her incredulous response to Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley, calling for a debate in Parliament on International Men’s Day: “As the only woman on this committee, it seems like every day to me is International Men’s Day. When I’ve got parity, when women in these buildings have parity, you can have your debate,“ was her response.

It’s like I say in the book repeatedly: I don’t hate men. I hate men who rape

A common accusation men’s rights activists like to throw at her is that she hates men, but there is a distinction between the men she does and doesn’t hate. “It’s like I say in the book repeatedly: I don’t hate men. I hate men who rape, which I don’t think is a difficult standard.”

“I’ve managed to avoid sexually assaulting anyone in my life,” she adds pointedly, “and I’ve not put any effort in – it just happened naturally.”

Phillips made her mark in Parliament with speeches drawing attention to violence against women. On International Women’s Day, the House of Commons sat in stunned silence as she read out all 120 names and ages of women and children killed by men they knew in one year. This was a speech written about all over the world. “Here in this place, we must not let them die in vain,“ she told MPs.“ We owe that much to them. We owe them much more than what they got.”

Legal aid department is terrified of us now

Survivors of abuse contact her every single day, many expressing their relief they have an MP who they feel truly represents them in Westminster. Alongside Labour MP Peter Kyle, Women’s Aid and survivors of abuse, Phillips successfully campaigned to ban perpetrators of domestic violence from being able to directly cross-examine their victims in family courts. She is now assisting with domestic violence legal aid cases from across the country – and winning them. “The legal aid department is actually quite terrified of us now,” she explains gleefully.

The legal aid cases she comes on board with keep her informed. They also keep her grounded, preventing her from becoming consumed by the Westminster bubble. “To have any sort of authenticity and to keep the authenticity of my voice I have to not become this place and stay the person that I was.”

“When I was first elected, our friend said to us ‘you’ll be a good MP because of Tom. He’ll never let you turn into a nob“

Is she worried about that happening? “I was, but I don’t think it’s ever going to happen.” This is in part thanks to the friends who have charged themselves with ensuring Phillips “doesn’t become fancy”. But there is one person who she says will always ensure she doesn’t start sounding like the identikit politicians strolling around Westminster: her husband, Tom.

“When I was first elected, our friend said to us ‘you’ll be a good MP because of Tom. He’ll never let you turn into a nob’. I mean, he would just be like, ‘what you just said – don’t ever say that again. You sound like an absolute bellend. It’s not all about you Jess.’”

Networks formed by women in communities have an economic benefit

I'm about to move house. My lovely neighbours just brought round curry and pakora for our first meal at new place. Got a bit tearful — Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) February 24, 2017

Phillips spent most of Friday night weeping after leaving good friend “Jess who lives over the road” ahead of their move to a new home. Society does not appreciate the power and social capital of the way women come together, she says. The networks they form mobilise women, helping them back into work, in raising a family or recovering from an illness or crisis.

“If we didn’t have those networks, productivity in the country would be [lower] – there is an actual economic benefit in the fact that I am kept sane by my friends popping in and having a cup of tea with me when I’m having to vote on Syria. During the Syria vote, one of my friends would come round and talk to me and make sure that I was alright. They would cook a dinner and we would all sit and just laugh and dance.”

Corbyn’s efforts to promote women’s rights lacklustre

There was no doubt a few politicians who started feeling a bit jittery at learning Phillips was to release a book. She has been vocal about the inefficacy of some politicians in Westminster. Phillips is unconvinced of Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to lead the party to an election victory and, like Harriet Harman, believes his efforts to promote women’s rights are lacklustre.

“I think there is often a bit of a check box of women’s rights that they have, they’ll tick that box.

We’re not here to have the Labour party ‘help’ us, you know, use us as a tool to help push forward their agenda

“I worry that like all more hard-left movements that they cannot see intersectionality and what really bothers me is the idea that women and any working class people and BME people, gay people and disabled people – we’re not here to have the Labour party ‘help’ us, you know, use us as a tool to help push forward their agenda. We’re here to take part and have agency to do those things. I don’t want to be just a sort of ‘well we did something good for women’ checkbox for somebody.”

Family courts were a real victory, so where was Corbyn’s voice championing it, she wonders? “The stuff that Pete and I and Angela Smith did on the family courts is a genuine Labour win. If you want to talk about fighting the Establishment Corbyn – this is the actual Establishment that we are fighting to change for the better of the most needy, vulnerable people in society.”

Labour leadership

Phillips has already said in a previous interview that she would like to be Home Secretary one day. What about Labour leader? She becomes coy and suddenly more politician-like, answering deliberately and framing her responses with the caveat “at the moment”.

“The only reason I would ever – and I certainly wouldn’t do it anytime soon – stand to be the leader of the Labour party was if I thought that it would be good for the Labour party for me to do it.” Would it be good for the Labour party for you to do it? “Well,” she begins carefully, “at the moment, I think anyone, anything has got to be better than… At the moment the Labour party can’t get worse can it?”

But Phillips wouldn’t put herself forward for the leadership “at the moment” because she’s only been an MP “for like 15 minutes”.

We need a more relatable leader like Tony Blair

Phillips met Tony Blair twice as a teenager when he first came to power and was impressed by his charm, which he maintained even after telling him on their first meeting at the CBI conference in Birmingham that she was there “to promote socialism, unlike you.” She left the Labour party under his leadership before returning in 2010 but still looks to Blair as the kind of leader the party needs – one with enough charisma to win an election.

He was quite relatable, Tony Blair, even though now he seems like a figure who is completely unrelatable

“We don’t put enough credence on the one to one abilities of our leadership, charisma and also just relatability. He was quite relatable, Tony Blair, even though now he seems like a figure who is completely unrelatable; super rich and living this what we now call ‘liberal metropolitan elite’. Those words didn’t exist back then. But he was relatable.

“People could paste onto him as well what they hoped to see and I think that is what we are lacking massively at the moment in political leadership.”

Recounting addiction

Phillips puts much of her past and her present into the book, including an unflinching account of her brother’s addiction and the toll this took on their family.

“I wasn’t weary about putting stuff about Luke in there,” she says blunty. He has been poorly, “but he was also a pain in the arse”. “When your actions affect someone’s life so much they become that person’s own property, so I own what happened with Luke.

“He knows what an arsehole he has been to us all. I think he thinks it deserves to be said“

“One of the things on the road to recovery is having to really push down on the pain and show what you’ve done to other people. So he knows what an arsehole he has been to us all. I think he thinks it deserves to be said.” Besides, she says the incidents mentioned in the book are just the tip of the iceberg.

Her chapter on motherhood is equally frank. Motherhood, she explains, is at times euphoric and at other times unremarkable and often downright tedious. What it is never is the marker of womanhood or fundamental to being a family. Mothers should not be guilt-tripped about having to work or work late: children do not give a shit when you have to work a long day. Phillips sends her friends copies of Libby Purves book How Not to Be a Perfect Mother to remind them not to beat themselves up.

Slaying it from likes of Farage

Do one mate when you've done as much as me for the poorest I'll still block you for your ignorance. Toodle pip https://t.co/AkHFA5ywNy — Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) February 24, 2017

Phillips is one of the most outspoken politician in Westminster. Just yesterday morning she was warning one tweeter not to “try that bullshit you’re the establishment crap on me bab, I’m used to slaying it from likes of Farage”. But writing this book taught her where her limits lay in how much of herself she was willing to give to the public.

“Reading Caitlin Moran and the way she talks about shagging and things from a very female perspective about women’s sexuality, there was stuff that I thought ’maybe I could write some stuff like that,’ but then I thought – actually it’s not really relevant to what I’m trying to say and also may be that is the step too far for me.”

A number of incidents from inside the walls of Westminster have also been omitted because Phillips still has to work with these MPs for the foreseeable future. “But once I’ve left…”

Everywoman: One Woman’s Truth About Speaking The Truth, by Jess Phillips, published by Hutchinson Books on 23 February at £14.99