Former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has said she “hated” being in Keir Starmer’s government as she described the battle she faced to persuade other departments to take action on violence against women.
Ms Phillips, who managed domestic abuse refuges for Women’s Aid before she became an MP, also also said she would not return to a similar role to “just start knocking heads together again”.
“I hated it. I hated being a government minister actually, I hated it,” she said.
Speaking to Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, she said that she was “deeply unhappy throughout most” of her time in the post.
Ms Phillips quit as a minister in May in a bid to force Sir Keir from No 10, and said that he lacked “the drive to get anything done with gusto”.
She warned the government was “nowhere near the level of will and commitment it will actually take to halve” violence against women and girls, the policy Labour set out in in the 2024 general election manifesto.
“The Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, if you were to do everything in it, you would probably drop [VAWG] by about 25 per cent,” she said.
She added that she used to give “gold stars” to ministers in other departments who took the pledge seriously – but expressed frustration at some departments.
“I understand other government departments have other priorities, but it’s not my job to be flexible,” she said. “I have one job, and it is to stop women having to be flexible about their safety.”
Asked if she would return to government, she said: “I won’t go back and be a junior minister who – whilst having an awful lot of gumption and kudos in the field – I won’t go back and just start knocking heads together again.”
She added: “I don’t think I’m suited to it, …is the actual answer… I won’t go back in and do more of the same. So no is the answer,” she said.
Sir Keir survived the attempt to force him from office earlier this year but bowed to growing frustration within his party at the start of the summer when he announced he was standing down, clearing the way for Andy Burnham to become prime minister.