“I GET
CONSTANT
COMMENTS
ON THE
CLOTHES
I WEAR, HOW
FAT OR THIN
I AM, MY HAIR,
EVERYTHING”with four tattoos, Phillips makes no
secret of the fact that she would like to
be home secretary one day, or even
Prime Minister. Parliament’s old guard
seems more threatened by her ability to
connect with the electorate every day.
The 37-year-old former worker for
Women’s Aid, the domestic abuse charity,
has been an MP for only four years,
almost entirely on the back benches, but
has already become a key voice in
politics. She has shone in commons
debates on Brexit (her speech on the
virtues of immigration went viral in
January, clocking up more than two
million views) and social care, and is a
burgeoning media star who is as likely
to tear a strip off her party leader on
Newsnight as she is to enthuse to The
Guardian about prosecco and ’90s R&B.
There are haters too, though. Vicious
ones. She receives thousands of rape and
death threats on social media (600 in a
single night last summer), in part a toxic
by-product of her perceived disloyalty to
the “brocialist” men running Labour these
days. Her family home in Birmingham,What she likes is getting her message
out – most urgently about gender and
class. “I spend my entire time here
basically trying to push the parameter
slightly,” she says, “just trying to
constantly remind people, ‘Don’t forget
women.’” In her viral speech earlier this
year, she railed against the prism of
privilege through which most politicians
still see the world – “I thought I had
met posh people before I came here, but
I had actually just met people who eat
olives” – and has despaired of women’s
issues being the perennial “political side
salad”. It has become a devastating
tradition that on International Women’s
Day every year, she stands up in the
House of Commons and reads out the
names of all the women who have been
murdered by a husband or partner in
the past 12 months.
Despite much of parliament’s day-
to-day work being bogged down by
Brexit, she and a band of Labour allies,
including Stella Creasy and Lucy
Powell, are racking up victories born of
Phillips’s pre-Westminster expertise.where she lives with her husband and
sons, has reinforced windows, and a
panic button by the bed.
Phillips herself explains her effect best:
“I can cut through.” It’s a powerful gift.
Especially when being yourself has
replaced gravitas as the Holy Grail of
electability. Today, she arrives for her
interview after a morning spent “teaching
a panel of domestic abuse victims
how to lobby MPs”, and sits at a desk
surrounded by suffragette memorabilia,
while vaping away. “Strawberry Smash,”
she explains, laughing. “I had to ask for
it in Tesco today, while also buying
Tampax – most girlie moment ever.”
She is wearing a black wool twinset and
brown jersey skirt that she thinks might
be from Sainsbury’s, an immaculate
manicure in neon tangerine and a
welcoming, slightly crafty smile. She is
fully aware that, as a working-class
socialist, “doing Vogue” is a going to raise
eyebrows among fans and foes alike.
“When this comes out, it will send
people reeling,” she laughs. “F**k ’em.
I do what I like.” PREVIOUS SPREAD: JESS WEARS DRESS AND BELT, BOTH LORO PIANA. SCARF, CHARVET. BOOTS, AKRIS. OPPOSITE: JESS WEARS COAT, PAUL SMITH. SWEATER, PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND. TROUSERS, MAX MARA, AT MATCHESFASHION.COM. SHOES, MALONE SOULIERS. THIS PAGE:17408-19-WellJessPhilips.indd 174 10/06/2019 13:37