Housing Secretary and chief Starmer loyalist Steve Reed has issued a blistering counter-attack on Jess Phillips, who resigned as safeguarding minister on Tuesday. Couldn’t happen to a nicer person…
Phillips blamed Starmer in her letter for not getting new regulations through to protect children, specifically mentioning one idea of hers which involved monitoring every image that passes onto a phone in the UK. Reed told Peston last night that it’s up to the minister to get things done:
“Well, it takes a minister to get in there and drive their agenda through… I think it was Liz Kendall, my colleague, who was the relevant minister… she got into Number Ten and she got the whole operation not just in the UK but with Europe with Canada with Australia with New Zealand and they faced down big tech and they protected children. You have to get in there and speak to colleagues. If you sit back and wait, it won’t happen.”
Reed went on to quote Phillips’ letter to defend Starmer’s record:
“I saw Jess talking about deeds, not words, you know, the social housing bill that is going to bring in new rights to protect victims of domestic abuse living in council housing from being unfairly evicted if they’re targeted by their partner. That’s been going on. That’s deeds, not words. That’s exactly what she called for.”
Recollections probably vary as to whether Phillips put herself ‘in the room’ or not…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”