Former minister Jess Phillips threatened to resign multiple times over Mandelson concerns

Former minister Jess Phillips has said she “threatened to resign on a number of occasions” over Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.

Lord Mandelson was sacked from the role in September last year over his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms Phillips, who resigned as safeguarding minister earlier this month in protest over prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, said she was “hurt and upset” to learn of Lord Mandelson’s initial appointment.

She told BBC Newsnight: “I had to decide whether me, like, shouting my mouth off to make myself feel better was the right thing to do, or if I could use that hurt anger to sweat the assets on violence against women and girls, to get basically half of what is written in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy actually written into it.

“Never waste a crisis is always my mantra with regards to Violence against Women and Girls Strategies, but privately, obviously I was horrified just like everybody else.”

Ms Phillips said she “made demands” to stay in her role.

“I didn’t just consider (resigning); I threatened to resign on a number of occasions and made demands to stop me from resigning,” she said.“It’s not really fair to say what me and Keir Starmer particularly spoke about. But usually, you speak to the people before him before you get to that point… at the point that he is talking to you, he is saying ‘OK, what do you need?’ in regard to, in my case, violence against women and girls.

“But I have to say I think I was probably one of the only people who actually did that.”On Saturday, Ms Phillips said she felt “liberated” since resigning with a scathing letter accusing Sir Keir of failing to be “bold”.

She accused him in her letter of failing to act fast enough on violence against women and girls, saying his “desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”.

Elected in Birmingham Yardley in 2015, Ms Phillips has been a vocal campaigner against domestic and sexual violence throughout her time in Parliament.Her tenure as safeguarding minister attracted controversy, with the government finding itself at the centre of a row over its handling of an inquiry into grooming gangs last year.

The row saw five members of the inquiry’s victim liaison panel quit in protest against suggestions the probe’s scope could be widened and criticising Ms Phillips directly.