Jess Phillips predicts ‘ugliest election ever’ as she lists key issues raised by Birmingham locals

Birmingham’s Jess Phillips believes this will be the “ugliest election ever” as the general election looms on July 4. The Labor candidate standing for re-election as MP for Birmingham Yardley also highlighted the biggest issues Brummies complain about on her doorstep.

Speaking in the weeks before Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap summer election, mother-of-two Mrs Phillips was already preparing her team for the vote, which was due to be called by the end of 2024. Mrs Phillips said: ” It’s going to get really ugly when the elections are called.

“I imagine the worst election I will ever participate in. And that says something after the Brexit referendum, although it wasn’t that bad, it was only after that that it became toxic.”

READ MORE: Enter our £1,000 Aldi voucher giveaway and let loose down the aisle

The 42-year-old, who resigned from Kier Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet over the Labor leader’s stance on Gaza when he called for a ceasefire, has been in Parliament since May 2015. She has first-hand experience of three previous general elections on who challenged them and won in her constituency.

“That will be the worst I think,” she added. “The levels of misinformation will be off the charts.

“The levels of vitriol and protests will be massive. There will be bad faith actors who will say terrible things to do bad things, which has always been the case.

“Remember in my 2017 election someone put up posters all over the train station saying ‘Jess Phillips is a feminist Jess Phillips will hurt your children’s education’ which was spelled wrong.

“They put my face on posters saying I’m a traitor, so I haven’t been without vitriol (in the past).”

Speaking to residents in Yardley’s constituency, Ms Phillips listed the main issues people were currently facing and complained about the most.

Get breaking news BirminghamLive WhatsApp

“The biggest issue people come to us for is housing and homelessness, without a shadow of a doubt,” Ms Phillips said. “When you’re knocking on doors, it’s often been about free accommodation.

“Housing is the biggest problem, bar none, crime comes up and drug dealing on the streets comes up a lot and just the condition of the street and law and order, then Gaza. In this order. Also, medical assistance.

“Right now, it’s more and more people’s inability to get healthcare. I’d say it’s peaking now, more so than at any other time in the decade I’ve been a member of parliament. A lot more complaints to health trusts and GPs and really starting to see pathetic care.

TEST: How many of these Brummie and Black Country phrases do you know?

“But the shelter is definitely the top dog by far.”

The biggest issues residents raise at the door, according to Jess Phillips

• Housing and Homelessness
• Exempt accommodation – these are ‘supported accommodation’ hostels and converted houses that house vulnerable people. There were sharp increases in them in Yardley West and Stechford, where the number doubled from 96 to 194 in a year.
• Crime and drug trafficking
• Street cleaning and community
• aerate
• NHS complaints