My name is Jess Phillips and I’m standing to be leader of the Labour Party.
Politics has changed.
We have the largest Tory majority since Margaret Thatcher, we lost seats that we have held for over a century and social media has transformed campaigning.
We can do nothing if we stay stuck in the past, fighting the same old battles with the same old tools.
We need to change, to be honest if we are to win power.
We need a strong leader with a big personality to take on Boris Johnson from day one.
I have already held him to account on his government’s cuts to education which has seen lots of schools (including my son’s) have to close every Friday and his damaging Brexit plans, which will lose us jobs and investment.
(Image: Prime Minister’s Press Office/PA)
For people like me, in places like Birmingham where I come from, our lives were made better through tax credits and Sure Start centres.
Under the Tories, that changed.
My work running women’s refuges, rape crisis centres and as a community activist means that I know what it’s like for the most vulnerable in our society, like the ones I met at a foodbank yesterday.
Boris Johnson doesn’t have a clue about the lives of people like you and me.
He doesn’t know what it’s like to be worried about getting to the end of the month with no money in the bank, caring for an elderly relative whilst juggling work, or worrying about a teenage child being out and not being able to get home because the bus service is rubbish.
I will be a voice for people like you. Because that’s been my life too.
We suffered a terrible defeat at the election in December.
We can’t continue like nothing has changed.
We need a different leader and a different team who can stick it to Boris and earn back the trust of the people we lost.
