Jess Phillips admits she was wrong over Birmingham riot rant as she faces call to resign
The Home Office minister has faced cross-party calls to resign or be sacked after her comments amid the riots.
Birmingham: Sky News reporter interrupted during disorder
Senior Labour minister Jess Phillips has suggested she regrets her comments amid Asian riots in Birmingham, after she appeared to justify the violent scenes.
Ms Phillips’s comments, which saw cross-party calls for her to either resign or be sacked, came as Muslim men caused havoc in her home town, some brandishing weapons, slashing tyres and intimidating journalists.
Amid the chaos, Ms Phillips said the masked criminals “came to this location because it has been spread that racists were coming to attack them”.
She appeared to blame Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice for the scenes, adding: “This information was spread entirely to create this content. Don’t spread it, Mr Tice!”
Multiple Reform UK MPs subsequently called on Ms Phillips to resign from her Home Office ministerial job, with accusations she was downplaying or defending the violence.
This afternoon Ms Phillips suggested to Sky News that her tweet was a mistake, and she should have been more careful with her remarks.
Ms Phillips said: “Of course, I would choose my words more carefully [in future].
“I’m more than happy to say that when I make a mistake. Absolutely.
“I was trying to get across that this gathering of people had been manufactured by misinformation.”
She added she “certainly could have phrased it better”, and while she was “not making excuses” she explained she had spent the whole day with local police trying “incredibly hard to bring down tensions”.
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Just yesterday, Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat said Sir Keir Starmer had demonstrated a failure of leadership in refusing to sack her for the comments.
Mr Tugendhat said at a press conference: “When gangs of masked men gathered in Birmingham brandishing weapons and, live on camera, threatened female journalists, and attempted to slash the tyres of broadcast vans, Jess Phillips – a Home Office minister – chose to justify their behaviour instead of condemning it, because these were not Far Right hooligans, but young Muslim men".
“One man attacked by these vigilantes ended up in hospital.
“This was a failure of leadership just as surely as that of Nigel Farage. And it is not the only failure of leadership by Keir Starmer’s government over these last two weeks.”
Fellow leadership hopeful James Cleverly also called for her to go, saying: “Home Office ministers should not be making excuses for masked men shouting, abusing and intimidating members of the media”.
“Ministers are not commentators or casual observers, they are decision makers and need to think about the consequences of their words and actions.”
Lee Anderson said she should “apologise for this and then resign”.
“You're part of the problem not the solution. A disgusting tweet. What are you scared of? Losing votes?”
