Sir Keir Starmer has been blasted for not acting fast enough to tackle child abuse as his Government begins to crumble. Jess Phillips hit out at the Prime Minister after resigning from her role as safeguarding minister. She is the second minister to step down amid growing pressure on the Labour leader.
In her resignation letter, Ms Phillips stated she could not continue to serve under the current leadership as she was “not seeing the change I think I, and the country, expect”. Ms Phillips, the most senior member of the Government to resign so far, wrote in a letter to the PM that Sir Keir was “a good man fundamentally” but that was “not enough”.
She added that she could no longer serve as a minister “under the current leadership”.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, a communities minister and an ally of Angela Rayner, earlier became the first frontbencher to quit and call for Sir Keir to go.
The Prime Minister dared rebels to oust him on Tuesday, telling a Cabinet meeting that “the Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered”.
Ms Philips went on: “91% of online child sex abuse is self-generated by children groomed, tricked and exploited into 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.”
She added: “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.”