JESS Phillips has pulled out of the Labour leadership race.
The MP for Birmingham Yardley in making the announcement said that the party needed a candidate who could unify all parts of the Labour Party but, at this moment, that was not her.
READ MORE: Jess Phillips outlines opposition to second Scottish independence vote
She explained: "I truly believe that unless we talk to the country on their terms, not just on ours, that we won't be able to make the gains we need to win an election and (to) do what everyone in the Labour movement wants to do and that is make people's lives better.
"In order to do that, the Labour Party will need to select a candidate that can unite all parts of our movement - the union movement, the members and elected representatives - I have to be honest that at this time, that person isn't me.
Sending a message to everyone who has backed me, to all who have joined in and joined up - I promise that your voices will still be heard. We all have a role to play in changing our party and our country. pic.twitter.com/xianaiGpPr
— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) January 21, 2020
"In order to win the country, we are going to have to find a candidate in this race who can do that and take that message out to the country of hope and change for things to be better," she added.
The decision by Ms Phillips, 38, came after she failed to turn up at a hustings at the GMB union earlier in the day; although aides insisted this was due to her having an unavoidable appointment elsewhere.
The GMB union was preparing to announce which leadership candidate it would back. Lisa Nandy, the MP for Wigan, had been seen as the favourite for the nomination although, after having won the support of Unison and Usdaw, Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, was building up a deal of momentum in the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel