Jess Phillips made minister following frontbench resignation over Middle

Jess Phillips has been appointed to the Labour government as a minister, focusing on tackling violence against women and girls and domestic violence.

The Labour MP has been a vocal campaigner on the subject, and has become known for reading out a list of all the women killed by men in the UK every year on International Women’s Day in parliament.

Ms Phillips had the role of shadow domestic violence and safeguarding minister from 2020 to 2023 under Sir Keir Starmer but resigned over the party’s stance on the Middle East conflict in November.

She was one of 56 Labour MPs – including eight frontbenchers – to vote in favour of an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.

This defied the Labour whip, and so Ms Phillips had to step aside.

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She has also appeared on the Sky News podcast Electoral Dysfunction, alongside political editor Beth Rigby and former Scottish Conservatives leader Baroness Ruth Davidson.

Her new role will have a similar portfolio to what she did before.

Ms Phillips narrowly returned to the Commons in last week’s general election – with her majority slashed from 10,659 to 693.

Her Birmingham Yardley seat saw Jody McIntyre come in second, with Mr McIntyre representing George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain.

Following her election, Ms Phillips was heckled while giving her acceptance speech.

Birmingham and the Midlands saw many Labour MPs lose sizeable chunks of their majorities or even their seats, many to candidates who campaigned heavily on the situation in Gaza.

In nearby Birmingham Perry Barr, independent Ayoub Khan unseated Labour’s Khalid Mahmood.

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And Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat to independent Shockat Adam – with a 22,675 majority overturned.

Mr Ashworth has now been appointed as head of the Labour Together thinktank.

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