Ex-minister Jess Phillips reveals she threatened to quit 'a number of times' over Mandelson scandal before finally resigning with blast at Starmer

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 12:25, 27 May 2026 | Updated: 12:26, 27 May 2026 Former minister Jess Phillips has revealed she threatened to quit 'on a number of occasions' over the Peter Mandelson scandal before finally resigning this month. The senior Labour MP recently stood down as safeguarding minister with a scathing attack on Keir Starmer's leadership. Ms Phillips, an ally of rival leadership hopeful Wes Streeting, accused the Prime Minister of failing to be 'bold' and criticised a lack of 'fight and drive'. She has now revealed she had previously 'threatened to resign on a number of occasions' over Lord Mandelson's controversial appointment as US ambassador. Sir Keir was forced to sack the disgraced peer from the role in September last year over his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Ms Phillips, the Birmingham Yardley MP, told BBC Newsnight she was 'hurt and upset' to learn of Lord Mandelson's initial appointment. 'I had to decide whether me, like, shouting my mouth off to make myself feel better was the right thing to do,' the former Home Office minister said. '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.' Former minister Jess Phillips has revealed she threatened to quit 'on a number of occasions' over the Peter Mandelson scandal before finally resigning this month Ms Phillips continued: '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.' She revealed she 'made demands' to stay in her role, adding: 'I didn't just consider (resigning); I threatened to resign on a number of occasions and made demands to stop me from resigning. '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.' The senior Labour MP recently stood down as safeguarding minister with a scathing attack on Keir Starmer's leadership Earlier this week, Ms Phillips said she felt 'liberated' since resigning from the Government. She also claimed there would be a change in Downing Street even if Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, doesn't succeed in his bid to return to Westminster. Mr Burnham is Labour's candidate in the upcoming Makerfield by-election and is hoping to win the House of Commons seat with a view to going on to challenge Sir Keir. Speaking at the Hay Festival on Monday, Ms Phillips said: 'I think even if Andy Burnham doesn't win in Makerfield there will be a change of the PM. 'I've never been to Wigan in my life, so I have absolutely no idea about the people there, so I shall go and find out. 'But, yes, I imagine Andy Burnham will win it, and I imagine then that the PM changes.' Scores of Labour MPs have called for the Prime Minister to stand down in the wake of an electoral hammering earlier this month across councils in England, Wales and Scotland. Mr Streeting quit as Health Secretary after losing confidence in Sir Keir's leadership and is expected to stand in any contest to replace the PM. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.