Jess Phillips MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  I can give an example from this morning, when I met around 60 stakeholders from organisations that work with children, with women and girls, and with perpetrators—lots of civil society organisations and businesses. We were in Downing Street with the Prime Minister, but it was not an event that was about drinking warm wine and eating nibbles; it was a working event to look at how we actually implement things. I know that people criticise the delay in the strategy, and that is fair enough, but the strategy is a piece of paper. How we actually make it work is much more important to me, and that is why we are working on it with stakeholders and providers. I genuinely welcome engagement with Members in this House, but I have learned something over the years; if you don’t mind me saying, Madam Deputy Speaker, I have felt slightly gaslit when people tell me that the sky is blue but then every case I handle tells me something else.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  It certainly does. There will not be a woman sitting in the Chamber today who has not experienced this—we have all felt unsafe. Lady Elish speaks for every single woman in the country when she says that. Actually, in my years of experience both personally and from working in this field, I have found the most frightening moment is not the moment of impact or the moment somebody gropes you; it is the things that lead up to it that leave you scared and leave you waiting. It is the leering that is frightening, actually—it is more frightening than the fact. That is the experience of literally every woman in our country at some point or another. Of course, we must not undermine that. As the mother of teenage sons, I stand here and say that while I want boys and men absolutely to be part of this, I do not feel that they have been included. Somebody else spoke to them when we did not, and that somebody else—those somebody elses—did not have their best interests at heart. So absolutely, like with the White Ribbon campaign, we should talk to our men and boys about this, because they want to help.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  The right hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. In part 1 of the Angiolini inquiry, Lady Elish made recommendations with regard to psychological testing prior to police recruitment, based on that exact issue. She also references heavily in this part 2 report Baroness Bertin’s review into violent and misogynistic pornography. This absolutely is an issue. The police faithfully said that they would undertake all of the part 1 report recommendations, and the next stage is to look not just at Wayne Couzens and vetting but at the case of David Carrick and his vetting as well. Undoubtedly, Lady Elish is already thinking about psychology in this regard, and it is at the forefront of her mind.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  I only wish that writing things on to the statute book changed the culture—it has been illegal to rape someone for quite some time, and it has been illegal to murder for even longer. I only wish that simply putting things on to the statute book made a difference. I would say to my hon. Friend’s police force that I always encourage good communications, including with the women involved. Policing is based on consent, and that is something we hold dear in our country. I implore the police to have discussions with my hon. Friend and the local community—about the community’s concerns and about what the police are going to do. I have seen this work all over the country. Project Vigilant by Thames Valley police is a brilliant example of work done with local businesses and local women’s groups to do exactly what my hon. Friend is talking about; I implore her force to implement a similar scheme. My hon. Friend mentions the use of community protection notices. In her review, Elish Angiolini has some interesting things to say about what police should be doing in public spaces using certain orders, so I ask my hon. Friend to have a look at some of those things. We will be talking in the violence against women and girls strategy about some of the issues that she has raised today. However, as I have said, just putting things on the statute book does not necessarily mean that, operationally, they will be brilliant. My job is to make sure that before I commence anything, it can actually work in practice.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  Obviously, it was a manifesto commitment of this Government to ensure that there were specialist RASSO—rape and serious sexual offences—teams in every police force, for the exact reason that my hon. Friend has outlined. It is not in the gift of Ministers standing here to ensure that something exists in every police force, because—quite rightly—of operational independence. However, there is a need for standardisation. For example, we would not allow the same lack of standardisation in response to terrorism—a point that Lady Elish makes in her review—and yet we allow it with regard to crimes against women. That is fundamental. Of course, I want to see an increase in police charging and police reporting, but that is not how we will measure whether we are decreasing incidents. Only 10% of victims of violence against women and girls ever talk to the police, so that in and of itself would never be a good measure. Of course, I want to see rates increasing, but that does not mean that the crime is always going up; it might just mean we are getting better at detecting it.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  Although I am an expert in this particular field, I am by no means an expert on rural communities, with the disparity and the need for better “by and for” services; we have “by and for” services for other under-represented communities. I really feel that there needs to be a considerably greater lobby around rurality and violence against women and girls; I am not the person to do this, so I implore the hon. Lady to act. I am totally here to hear it and to work alongside her, because what she says is absolutely the case. On the idea that stresses faced by a particular community cause violence against women and girls, I must point out, though, that the vast majority of people face stresses in their lives—and the vast majority of men—do not go on to abuse. The causes of violence against women and girls—Lady Elish points out there is little prevention, and I very much hope to change that; that is my main focus—are actually rooted in something quite different.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  The Minister for Policing is in the office right next to mine. I get up in literally everybody’s grill, but I am very welcome in her office. Policing reform has to be rooted in exactly what we are trying to do around violence against women and girls, because the issue is endemic, as are other failings to do with postcode lotteries across the country. I am heavily involved in the violence against women and girls strategy, which will also coalesce with policing reform.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  Do I think I will get enough money? Any Minister who stands before the House and says yes to that question is lying. Look, I would, of course, always want more money, but actually there are fundamental problems in our system and in the culture of organisations that more money will not solve. Take us having more police—we have more police now, let us say, than we did 100 years ago, and that has not stopped this happening. There are absolutely fundamental things that need to change. I suppose I am here for a long time, not a good time, in that regard. We have to change absolute fundamentals. When the Justice Secretary was here before me giving his statement, he announced the £550 million—half a billion pounds—three-year settlement for victims funding, which will increase year on year with the rising rates of inflation. I was very heartened to hear that level of security and those increases. Do I think I will have as much as I would want? Never. Do I think I will have enough and that I will make do? Yes, I do.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry · Hansard source

  More

  I do not want to give too many trails on the strategy, but yes. For a long time, I have spent my career trying to put nicer, better plasters on cuts that do not get any smaller. That work is vital, but I want to stop the cuts from happening—I do not want to make nicer plasters any more—and that means doing things that have never been done before. Lady Elish said brilliantly in the report that plenty of things have been allowed, whether in policing or other areas, to try to make progress without the need for a completely solid evidence base. I want that for this area.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

  More

  As the mother of somebody in that age bracket who works in a pub, I just wanted to stand up on his behalf and say thank you to the Chancellor.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls: London · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. First, as everybody else has done, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) who, at some personal cost to herself, always speaks up on these issues, and does so with clarity, brilliance and bravery. She always approaches the issues with solutions in mind. People across the political divide want to see solutions and to work with the Government, and that is what we should seek to do. I will go through every one of the issues raised by my hon. Friend, and then cover as many of the others as I can. I cannot promise to be completely detailed, but I can follow up with a level of detail. I suppose I should start with the criticism that has come to me around the delay to the violence against women and girls strategy. Last week, the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam) asked me in the main Chamber about the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) writing to me to ask when the strategy will be published. My answer is simple: it will be out imminently. About now, I am satisfied that the strategy is as good as it could possibly be. That has taken lots of detailed work across every Government Department. It is not just tokenistically saying, “Enough is enough.” But I did not need to wait for a piece of paper or something to be published on a Government website. Since I have been in this position, and since this Government have been in power, we have announced that we are providing £53 million in funding over four years to roll out the Drive project across England and Wales. We are introducing a range of measures on sex offender management and stalking through the Crime and Policing Bill. We are investing £13.1 million in a new policing centre for VAWG and public protection. We have launched the new domestic abuse protection orders—raised by a number of Members—on which the previous Government passed the legislation then did nothing for four years. We are investing nearly £20 million for frontline support to victims and in other projects, including increasing investment to organisations such as Southall Black Sisters, who have been mentioned, and specific increases to ensure that women can remain in refuge if no recourse to public funds is an issue. In 2024, we announced a funding increase of £30 million, making a total investment of £160 million for the domestic abuse safe accommodation grant. As others have said, we have also banned strangulation in pornography and made fundamental changes to the family court—something that many in this Chamber, including myself, campaigned for a decade to get across the line. I apologise for the delay in ensuring that every Government Department was doing absolutely everything it possibly could to get to where it needs to, but that did not stop me from cracking on with as much as I possibly could in the meantime. When I had the job of the hon. Member for Weald of Kent, sitting on the Opposition Front Bench, I spent my time, almost week in, week out, with the then safeguarding Minister—the previous Government did not call it VAWG—looking at solutions and at different places. As I said in my letter back to the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford—and I say this to the hon. Member for Weald of Kent now—my door is always open. Not once since I have been in this role has anyone from the Opposition Front-Bench team come to talk to me about possible solutions or things we could work on together, but I absolutely send out that message. I have met with Lib Dems and Conservative Back Benchers. I feel like I see the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) more than my husband, such is our life in this place. I have met Members of every different political hue on my own side. On this we are united. The hon. Member for Weald of Kent is welcome in my office with solutions, ideas about the frontline and detail. I extend that offer with great respect, and I truly mean it. I had great relations with my counterpart before, and I never ever sought to make headlines rather than helping the frontline. As someone who has been in her position, I offer that advice. My hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse spoke clearly about the need to go beyond the criminal justice system. She and other Members, including the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor), mentioned the Charing Cross incidents. What can I say? It was absolutely horrifying. I do want to speak up for some, though: a female officer featured in that documentary was trying to fight for the remand of a violent offender. It is easy to forget that some brilliant people were shown in that documentary—brilliant police officers who were trying to fight for the right thing. We need to make sure that those are the people who rise to the top of the ranks in our police forces. To do that, the Government plan to lay out, I think at the beginning of next year, a whole-systems reform of policing. Much of that will be about violence against women and girls because, for example, for the last 10 years or however long the police have never been asked to have any performance framework on violence against women and girls. We can talk about collecting data and which metrics we will use; well, based on the last decade the starting point is zero. We will take an overarching measure from the crime survey, which has been undertaken for the first time this year. The hon. Member for Weald of Kent might know that the data on which we will measure the metric was released earlier in the year. On stalking, my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse talked about the review by Richard Wright, who I met this week. He was the prosecuting barrister in the case of Alice Ruggles—a very tragic and famous stalking case. I very much look forward to his work in respect of the legislation, which I imagine will be relatively quick. The hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam and I have spoken before about what is currently wrong with the legislation for a section 2A stalking charge. I very much hope to come back and talk about that. Domestic abuse protection orders have been hailed today in the newspapers—the photo they used of me made me realise I need to get a haircut. I cannot stress enough how I am often a bit cynical, including when we were writing domestic abuse protection orders into the law under the previous Government, who wrote nice words on goat skin. I have been a cynic about all protection orders, as a person who has them, and as a person who has worked with them and watched breaches not be followed up by policing. That leads to some of the issues everybody has spoken about in terms of confidence in policing. If an order is breached and no one does anything, you do not call the police the next time, and that might be the time you get murdered. So I went into it trepidatiously when we came into government. The orders are now used in both the Metropolitan police area and in Greater Manchester, and they have already started to roll out to three other police forces. The plan is absolutely to roll them out across every area—I certainly want them for the women where I live. I am seeing cases of a breach of an order leading to nine months’ imprisonment within a week of the incident happening, and with the woman never having to step inside a courtroom. That is what I want to see from an order regime.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls: London · Hansard source

  More

  Oh yes—the pilot is in the hon. Gentleman’s area.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls: London · Hansard source

  More

  Honestly, police officers in the Met and in Greater Manchester, where I have visited them undertaking these orders, are so very grateful. Some tweaks have come out of the pilot, which is the reason for doing a pilot. Some of them are legislative, some are about resources and some are about offender management. The fundamental thing is that they allow the police to do proper, good old-fashioned policing. It means they are responding. We are not waiting on a victim to say, “This person breached it.” They are going out, talking to them and finding out if the order has been breached. I really want to see the state taking the administration off the woman. It was shared with me that in just one part of the Greater Manchester pilot—I will definitely get the colloquial thing wrong if I say which bit of Greater Manchester—there had been a 76% reduction in repeat offences just in the cohort that had been given domestic abuse protection orders. Anyone who looks at the Government’s mission and who knows anything about domestic abuse and violence against women and girls will know that we cannot halve anything unless we stop the repeat. The repeat is a massive problem, so seeing a 76% reduction in that cohort already is very good. People have spoken about employers and the need to make sure that they are included in the strategy. There was a great mention of the brilliant work done by USDAW, and organisations such as Lloyds giving staff two weeks’ paid leave. There are brilliant examples. We cannot keep saying that this is everyone’s business and not expect employers to take part. I have to say, actually, that there is quite a lot of enthusiasm—my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) said that the businesses in her area really want to take part. On the ringfences in respect of refuge accommodation, part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 created a ringfence for housing-related statutory support. This Government have increased the amount of money in the last year by £30 million. My hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse gave a good example of it being done well in London, and some of the money being used for specialist “by and for” services. She identified the fact that we really need to bottom out where services are commissioned well and where they are not. It is a different story across the country, so it is nice in this debate about London to be able to say that I have seen good practice undertaken in London in this regard, through the Mayor’s office working with local councils. I have seen bad practice elsewhere. We need to make sure that there is a standard in the country, no matter where someone is. It is the same for policing and for the CPS. As I said, I see the hon. Member for Strangford more than my husband; I feel like he has always been in the room. I have a special place in my heart for Northern Ireland and will continue to work with the devolved Administrations over there. Many people, including my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) very clearly, mentioned the issue of David Carrick, and other issues of trust in the Metropolitan police. The first part of the Angiolini review has already reported, and reporting on the second part is imminent. The Metropolitan police promised to follow up on the Louise Casey review. I speak to Mark Rowley many times—he is actually from Birmingham—and the Home Office is making sure that the Metropolitan police is following up on all those things. More broadly, we need to change the regime and reform police vetting and standards, and disqualify people when they commit some of these crimes. Apologies that I did not respond to everybody, but I want to give my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse her minute to wind up. I promise I will answer all questions in writing—to which everyone behind me thinks, “I wish she had not said that!”

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  There is absolutely no reason why historical cases should not be brought forward and reviewed. As part of the work following on from the Casey review—certainly in cases of historical child sexual abuse—the opening of “no further action” cases has been worked on at pace through Operation Beaconport. More broadly, there are review systems, and I will send the hon. Member information about the organisations that the Home Office works with and that work alongside the police to look into the review systems that might be needed for people in cases such as hers and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Tulip Siddiq) that have not been picked up.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  I can absolutely confirm that the part of the police and crime commissioners’ role that involves commissioning local victims’ services will be brought into the new system. It will not be that that money is gone from the centre; this is about how it will be given out. I cannot say for certain that all organisations that currently have that money will have it on the basis that they currently have it, because nobody could commit to that. That is the commissioner’s job. We look forward to the violence against women and girls strategy, because there will be a huge amount on victims’ commissioning in that.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  We recognise the vital role of specialist “by and for” services in providing tailored support to victims and survivors. It has been my personal pleasure over many years to work alongside the brilliant women at Sikh Women’s Aid, who operate so furtively in our local area. I meet regularly with Imkaan, the umbrella lead for such “by and for” services, to seek solutions to exactly the problem of ensuring that there is not a postcode lottery and that everybody can have specialist support.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  I very much look forward, no doubt, to coming to the right hon. Lady’s Committee to discuss the strategy on its publication. It is not for the Home Office to tell law enforcement exactly what the definition is in this regard—there are obviously definitions of domestic abuse and sexual violence in the law—but we will lay out clearly what we mean by “violence against women and girls”, and police operational matters will be corralled, like I say, by the new centre, which has had £13 million of investment to ensure that there is standardised practice across the country and we are all singing from the same hymn sheet.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government, and our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade has begun. We will deliver a transformative cross-Government approach that is underpinned by the new strategy, which we will publish soon.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  I would be happy to speak to my hon. Friend and her constituent about that case; I have heard similar cases with regard to high-worth, powerful rapists or alleged rapists. It is vital that we undertake a proper change to how our policing and justice system works for rape victims, whether through Operation Soteria or other interventions such as the new national centre for VAWG; we need to improve the situation across the country, not just see pockets of good practice. It is going to take time, but I am more than happy to work with her on that.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  I thank and give special mention to my hon. Friend and to my hon. Friend the Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Dr Tidball), who have worked tirelessly since they arrived in the House to join some of us who had been trying to get the Conservatives to change the presumption of contact in domestic abuse cases for 11 years—with no success. I work closely with the Victims Minister and with the Minister for Courts and Legal Services, and we will be making sure that this matter is part of a cross-Government package of security.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  As somebody who meets the Domestic Abuse Commissioner on a very regular basis, I cannot say that she would ever say that I did not have the enthusiasm to make this work—but perhaps I am wrong. I shall ask her what she meant by those comments. What I absolutely can say is that the strategy will come; it will be out very soon. It will be out when it is the best it can be, but we do not need to wait for a piece of paper to start our action. I will not take up too much time going through the list of about 13 things that we have already changed in the last 18 months, such as Raneem’s law or the roll-out of domestic abuse protection orders, which for four years—

• 17 Nov 2025 · Grooming Gangs Inquiry: Remit · Hansard source

  More

  The national inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse will mirror the Casey audit, and therefore cover England and Wales. That said, all parts of the UK must work together to protect children and bring perpetrators to justice. We have committed to sharing relevant findings with devolved Administrations and are considering how the inquiry’s work may interact with devolved responsibilities in Scotland, including cross-area trafficking concerns.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Grooming Gangs Inquiry: Remit · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Gentleman—others are stating from a sedentary position that the SNP Government in Scotland have said something different. However, any information can be given to the inquiry. In the example that the hon. Gentleman gave, where people are trafficked into Scotland, that evidence can be given to the inquiry. But police, justice, education, children’s services and health are all devolved, which is different to the system in England and Wales, where just policing and justice are devolved. We have to ensure that we are working within frameworks where the recommendations can be fully taken, but we will work with all nations to make sure that the findings make things better in the future.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Asylum Policies: Danish Model · Hansard source

  More

  Metaphorically.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  I agree entirely with my hon. Friend, and we are working urgently to establish the inquiry. Baroness Casey is supporting that work. She and I recently met some of the people my hon. Friend is talking about, and I look forward to updating the House.