Jess Phillips has admitted she found the general election campaign “absolutely horrible” after being subjected to abuse – which culminated in her being booed when giving her acceptance speech.
The Labor MP was narrowly re-elected for Birmingham Yardley on Friday morning with a majority of just 693 votes – after facing competition from a Workers’ Party candidate on a pro-Gaza ticket.
Mrs. – Who leave the labor bench in November to support a House of Commons vote calling for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire — was booed and heckled as she addressed the crowd during the count.
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Speaking to Sky News’ Beth Rigby on the latest podcast on Electoral Dysfunction, launching later tonightMs. Phillips reflected on the last six weeks of the campaign and said, “It was an absolutely horrible campaign.”
Labeling the abuse she has received in recent weeks as “the most aggressive [and] more intimidating,” Jess continued, “Not only [for] me, but rather the people in my constituency.
“[There were] people being intimidated, people being told that God will judge them if they vote a certain way.”
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Campaign activists in Birmingham had their car tires slashed on Thursday, while a young woman handing out leaflets shouted “genocide” in her face as someone filmed it, Phillips added.
“The reason they are filming is to generate content, to incite more intimidation,” she said. “In my constituency, the humiliation was for men and women.
“And they want to generate content…that’s what our politics has become: humiliation. Content-driven grift.”
Jess Phillips on ‘horrible campaign’
Ms. Phillips added that although her children campaigned on the day voters went to the polls, she did not feel comfortable taking them to the election count.
“I didn’t want to take them because I thought it would be too ugly for them to be there,” she said. “They were in good spirits and everything, but I had to keep them with me in the office.”
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