Holding a ministerial role in Parliament felt like being in a “straitjacket”, Labour MP Jess Phillips has said.
Ms Phillips served as the minister for safeguarding and women and girls for two years before resigning from the position in May.
The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley made the comments while chatting with the broadcaster and political commentator, Iain Dale, for his political Edinburgh fringe show, All Talk.
Ms Phillips said: “I was given quite a lot more latitude, I think, whether that was conscious or not, but I still felt it like a straitjacket.”
She said she felt that while in the role, anything she said would “make work” for those who worked under her and therefore became “controlling”.
She said: “When you’re a minister… there was something like 800 people who worked underneath me in the Home Office, something ridiculous like that amount of people. It makes work for them if I go a bit rogue, and I didn’t want to make work for them often, and they were often young, bright, brilliant people.”
She continued: “But they were constantly sort of anxious because they had their superiors saying, ‘how could you let her say this’ like these young, 20-something women had any control over me whatsoever? But in a sense that I didn’t want them getting in trouble, it was a bit controlling.”
Ms Phillips said she “hated” being a minister and, when asked if she ever considers resigning from Parliament, she said “it crosses my mind all the time”.
She continued: “I think about leaving Parliament all the time. I don’t think that unless you represent a London seat or you live in London, actually, regardless of where you represent, which was much more common than it is nowadays.
“Most people, well, most Labour politicians live in their constituencies – I don’t think it has the same longevity.”
She said another reason she considered resigning is due to safety concerns after the last election and rising tensions online.
In January 2025, tech billionaire and previous adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, labelled Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and called for her to be jailed on his media platform X.
His comments came after Ms Phillips defended the Government’s decision not to hold a national inquiry as she said that local inquiries were more effective at leading to change.
She has since had to hire “lots of security” due to the threats.
She said: “That wasn’t so much just the election as Elon Musk as well, and you become like a figure if you’re willing to speak your mind, funnily enough the freedom of speech people don’t like that.
She continued: “My life is immeasurably changed. I have to really think about everywhere I’m going to go, everything I’m going to do.”
