Jess Phillips: I am not willing to live in a shell - if I do that, they win

fast enough, I don’t care about all that procedural argy bargy about which motion… after you left it just all went mad!

“But the speaker acted in the way that he did because he is obsessed about MPs’ security, he was in charge of that, as the Deputy Speaker, when Jo Cox died and I know he takes it very seriously.”

As someone who has been on the sharp end, is he right about the level of threat MPs are facing? Philips emits a harrumph. “Some of the other MPs are beginning to realise the constant state

‘The Speaker acted in the way he did because he is obsessed with MPs’ safety. He takes it very seriously’

of threat that I live under. For me this week, the threat, it’s been no worse than normal… It was bad during

Brexit. But the worst for me [as an MP she champions women and girls who are victims of abuse] are violent fathers denied access to their children who send me rape and death threats.”

She says that in comparison to 2016, “the police are much hotter on this now. If I raise something they respond within days.

“I have screens in my constituency office and security protection. I’ve learnt to live with that. But I am not willing to live in a shell, because if I do that, they win. I try to live a normal life. Lindsay Hoyle [the Speaker] is always calling me in for a chat to see if I am alright – he is more obsessed by my security than I am. The only male target who gets a similar level of abuse is David Lammy, because he is a black man.”

For an MP who is seen as a firebrand of the left, Phillips has many good words to say about Conservative MPs. In the teaser episode of her podcast,

( a kind of girl take on with Baroness Ruth Davidson and Sky’s

Beth Rigby) she mentions that former home secretary Priti Patel would call her on Sunday nights to check that she was ok. She also praises Tory MP Tobias Ellwood for “the good points he made in the Gaza debate about the military situation”.

However she is sad that the procedural kerfuffle overshadowed the substance of the ceasefire debate. “The important thing is that parliament has passed a motion calling for a ceasefire – saying the Israelis should not go into Rafah, that the hostages should be released, that there should be aid. The House of Commons should be listened to by the Executive.”

For Phillips, 42, this is personal. In November, she voted – with the SNP – for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and forfeited her seat on Labour’s front bench for her pains.

Given her view is now shared by everyone from President Biden to Prince William, President Macron and even Sir Keir himself, was she ahead of the curve?

“It was an inevitability that Israel’s military action would not desist. Nothing ever ends through warfare. It was inevitable we’d end up calling for a political solution.”

Was it a hard call? “Yes it was a massive wrench. I loved that job... [Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence, a role she held from 2020 to 2023].

“It is what I entered politics to do. I can see some of my colleagues wrestling with their consciences over Gaza now – and that is a bit triggering.” I look up and she is wiping away a tear. “No, hang on, I’ve worked in rape crisis so I know that being triggered is a real thing… but truth is, I’ve got that feeling in my stomach of how difficult that was for me last time.

“It’s the hardest thing as a parliamentarian, wrestling with our own morality...”