Talking poo, Gaza and child poverty with Jess Phillips as polling day looms

It’s rare to find someone whose energy surpasses that of fiery Brummie politician Jess Phillips, but former post-punk frontman turned water pollution activist Feargal Sharkey does it. He was on a tour of sewage black spots across the country amid reports that thousands of over-discharges a year are dumping excrement into our streams and rivers.

“I used to get asked about my music,” says the former Undertones singer. “Now everyone who stops me wants to talk shit to me. That’s because we’re now at a point where every river in this country is polluted, and a major source of that is our own water industry.” says Sharkey.

He was in Birmingham as part of a pre-election tour of the constituencies of Labor candidates who share his distaste for number twos ending up floating in our waterways – and Phillips is one of them. Labor plans to empower water regulator Ofwat to ban bonuses to water patrons found to be pumping significant levels of raw sewage into rivers, lakes and seas as part of wider plans to clean up pollution .

READ MORE: Edgbaston election warning as town prepares to go to the polls

But once Phillips has talked poo, thoughts turn to the upcoming election and the challenge he faces to keep his seat. She is in Birmingham Yardley, the seat she first won in 2015 and now holds with a majority of 10,659.

She hopes her personal popularity, desire to keep the Tories at bay and the offer of change and renewal she says the Labor party offers voters will be enough to see off any contenders.

Phillips says: “I am confident of winning, but that is not to undermine the threat of losing Labor votes and the loss of confidence that has been part of this election story. But really, who knows, until the votes are counted, I’ll be doing nothing.”

She faces a tough challenge from local Lib Dem Roger Harmer, although all the noise has come from chief challenger Jody McIntyre, a disability campaigner who stands on a Labor ticket backed by Rochdale MP George Galloway. A long-time Palestinian activist, he took Phillips’s fight to Gaza, while highlighting the Labour-led city council’s poor record of protecting services across the constituency.

As for the Israel-Hamas war, he says Phillips remaining in the Labor Party is reason enough to remove her from office. The party “lay back” and failed to protest the Netanyahu government’s commission of “genocide” in Gaza, he says. He failed to sustain a cease-fire call from the start; and did not commit to ending foreign arms sales. Labor leader Keir Starmer, in a now infamous LBC interview, said Israel had the right to defend itself by withholding aid, food and medicine from the beleaguered occupiers of Gaza, and that should have prompted the resignation.

But Phillips says she is on his record in Palestine and Gaza without hesitation. She lost her role in the shadow cabinet after defying party orders and voting with an SNP/Lib Dem ceasefire amendment, she said. “I have given up what would very likely have been a job at the heart of government (had Labor been elected) that I committed myself to (on domestic violence and protection) based on my principles on Gaza. Most voters know this and support me.

“Just as we campaigned long and hard for years on the issue of exempt housing, we fought just as long and hard for Palestine.” She said her rival had nevertheless spread “misinformation” claiming she was in Labor Friends of Israel, based on a solitary meeting she had with the group in 2016 after becoming an MP, without acknowledging that he was actually in Labor Friends of Palestine. .

But she said she did more than vote – she also actively helped Palestinians with Birmingham connections escape the conflict and met with Palestinian women’s groups to offer support and raised tens of thousands of pounds for aid to Gaza. Last month, she was a key player in saving a Palestinian boy orphaned in an Israeli bomb blast, Channel 4 News reported.

On child poverty and social care

Child poverty has skyrocketed in Birmingham since 2010, with more families than ever bringing up youngsters in deprived households. Labs plans to introduce free breakfast clubs to primary schools, introduce mental health counselors into the classroom and raise living standards through its plans to grow the economy, alongside commitments on job creation, skills and levels salary.

But there appears to be little sign of a quick fix – something poverty campaigners believe could happen if the next government raises the cap on two child benefits that are destroying larger families. Phillips says: “The Labor government of 1997 did not commit to ending child poverty in its manifesto either, but it did (partly through a network of safe centres). I want to see the end of the cap on two child benefits (among other things) although I have to say that no one affected has ever lobbied me to meet this directly… what they are most concerned about is housing standards.

“The biggest problem for them is poor housing, overcrowding and lack of houses. At a local school, my team and I run a monthly housing operation because the problem is so big. This is only for parents of a school, it’s crazy. . Fix this and we will fix child poverty.”

Here’s a full list of all the Birmingham Yardley contenders:

• Jess Phillips – The work

• Yvonne Beverley Clements – Conservative

• Roxanne Green – Green party

• Roger Harmer – Liberal Democrats

• Nora Kamberi – Reform Great Britain

• Jody McIntyre – Labor Party of Great Britain

You can find out about sewage spills affecting your local area via this link to a map created by the Rivers Trust which highlights known spills.