Jess Phillips has resigned from her position in Sir Keir Starmer's cabinet as safeguarding minister.
She joins Miatta Fahnbulleh, Alex Davies-Jones and Zubir Ahmed as ministers who have resigned from the government.
Here are their resignation letters in full:
Dear Keir
I want to start by first saying that we have worked closely together on Violence Against Women and Girls for many years and I have no doubt you have genuine knowledge and desire to rectify this dreadful social ill. We have started to make steps towards change whilst in government and I have been grateful for your support.
However, it would be remiss of me not to say that real change and direction in this area usually came from threats made by me in light of catastrophic mistakes. The Mandelson saga whenever it bubbled up made Number 10 kick into gear on the subject in order to prove our credentials. I will never waste a crisis to make advancements for women and girls and so demands were made and some were met.
I think you are a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things however I have seen first-hand how that is not enough. The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed.
Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves. 91% of online child sex abuse is self-generated by children groomed, tricked and exploited in to abuse. The technology exists to stop children being able to take naked images of themselves. We could make this possible on every phone and device in the country. We could stop this abuse. It has taken me a year to get you to agree to even threaten to legislate in this space. Not legislate, just threaten. This is the definition of incremental change. Nothing bold about it. The announcement was meant to be in March, I'm still on a promise this will happen in June, I've given up believing it. How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dilly dallied and worried about tech bosses?
This is just one example.
Labour governments come around rarely is the constant refrain at the moment. It's true they are precious. Every Labour government in my and my family's lifetime has forged progress that changed our country and the world for the better. I know you care deeply, but deeds, not words are what matter. I'm not sure we are grasping this rare opportunity with the gusto that's needed and I cannot keep waiting around for a crisis to push for faster progress.
Decency is vital, calm curiosity is also needed, but so too are fight and drive required. Have a row, push back, make arguments, bring people along. Standing up and being counted can't always be workshopped. Politics is as much about feelings as policy, especially at the moment.
I want a Labour government to work and I will strive as I always have for its success and popularity, but I'm not seeing the change I think I, and the country expect, and so cannot continue to serve as a minister under the current leadership.
Best wishes
Jess Phillips MP
Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to tender my resignation as Minister for Devolution, Faith and Communities.
I am proud of the work that I have done in this Government. First as the Minister for Energy Consumers where I secured energy bill discounts for 6 million families and kick started our Warm Homes Plan; and in my current role where I have rolled out our transformational Pride in Place Programme, delivered a generational shift in power through our English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, and led our critical work on tackling the rising tide of hate and division in our communities.
It has been a privilege to play my part in a government that is working hard at every level to deliver the change that our country needs.
Whilst progress has been made, we have not acted with the vision, pace and ambition that our mandate for change demands of us. Nor have we governed as a Labour Party clear about our values and strong in our convictions.
Mistakes such as the winter fuel payment and cuts to the support provided to disabled people have left too many of my constituents doubting our mission. And the message on the doorstep was clear: you, Prime Minister, have lost the trust and confidence of the public.
Our country faces enormous challenges and people are crying out for the scale of change that this requires. The public does not believe that you can lead this change - and nor do I.
Therefore, I urge you to do the right thing for the country and the Party and set a timetable for an orderly transition so that a new team can deliver the change we promised the country."
Yours Sincerely,
Miatta Fahnbulleh
Dear Keir,
It has been the honour of my life to serve his majesty's government as the Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.
I have been proud to deliver some monumental changes which will help save lives and shift the dial on the conversation.
However, we have needed to do more and therefore it is with a very, heavy heart that I feel I have no choice but to resign.
The scale of the electoral defeats at the Senedd Cymru and across the United Kingdom have been catastrophic.
The country has spoken and we must listen.
We waited fourteen years to get into power and change the lives of those we represent.
The time now is for bold, radical action.
"I know you to be a good and honest man.
But in my heart are my constituents, the victims I have had the honour of working with every day, including the Hillsborough victims and their families, and all those who demand better of us.
I implore you to act in the country's interest and set out a timetable for your departure.
Ymlaen,
Alex Davies-Jones
Dear Prime Minister,
It is with a heavy heart that I write to you to resign from your government as Health Innovation and Safety Minister.
It has been the honour of my life to bring my twenty years of frontline experience as an NHS surgeon to government. In my time as a minister, I have been proud of delivering a life sciences sector that is now reputationally world class with turbocharged clinical trials delivering innovative life changing medicines to UK patients faster than ever before. I have also been proud to use my clinical experience to accelerate the digital transformation of our NHS and had been planning the rollout of the NHS online hospital later this year. And it has been truly humbling to start the work of correcting some of the wrongs suffered by those harmed by valproate and women harmed by pelvic mesh. I therefore truly wish I could have continued to finish the critical work that I started.
But as I raise my gaze above the daily work of ministerial life, it is clear to see that whatever the magnitude of individual achievements and progress, they are now being dwarfed and undermined by a lack of values-driven leadership at the centre. It is clear from recent days, that the public across the UK has now irretrievably lost confidence in you as Prime Minister.
This was apparent in the recent Scottish Parliament elections where on door after door your name was specifically cited as the driving reason why Labour voters of 2024 would not vote for Scottish Labour in 2026. The noise created at the centre of the government you lead, inadvertently became the midwife for the delivery of an incompetent fifth term SNP government, and one which will now inflict more division and decay on my constituents of Glasgow South West. This is an outcome that is as intolerable as it was avoidable.
Throughout the entirety of my surgical career, I have been guided by the principles of precision, clarity, candour and above all else an aspiration for excellence. Those are the principles that I have attempted to bring to Parliament and to my ministerial office. And it is those principles that sadly lead me to conclude that your continuation in office is wholly untenable.
I will be forever grateful for your decency and tireless work in turning our party around, in imbibing in us all a sense of national duty before party. You once also said our work is urgent. I now ask you for the sake of that urgency and that national duty, to step aside and set a timetable for an expedient and orderly transition to new leadership that commands the confidence of our country.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Zubir Ahmed
