There was a good interview with Jess by Janice Turner. I think she may be able to be brought fully onside. If anyone's in Jess's constituency please do write to her.
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jess-phillips-labour-under-corbyn-feels-like-i-ve-been-locked-out-of-my-home-laura-pidcock-amber-rudd-maria-miller-stella-creasey-jacob-rees-mogg-gs5xp8mh7
Given her Women’s Aid role and that she was part of the Tory MP Maria Miller’s consultation, I ask how she feels about proposals on transgender rights, which go to further consultation this autumn; such as enshrining gender self-identity — you are whatever gender you feel yourself to be — as a protected legal characteristic. Or ending the exemption for women’s refuges to exclude those born male.
Ms Phillips notes that everyone entering a refuge is assessed on whether they endanger vulnerable, abused women. “Any risk at all, you can refuse. If a man turned up with a beard, dressed like a bloke, and said, ‘I want to come into your refuge’, I would take on the lawyers! Every single time we used to advertise a job at Women’s Aid, some bloody libertarian bloke would apply for it and then try and take us to court. We’ve been dealing with this shit for decades. So there is no way that person would ever get into a refuge that I was running.”
She was shocked that Ms Miller refused to hear from women’s sector groups, and she told Mr Corbyn not to support legal change until after the second consultation. He ignored her advice. “What this whole issue has brought up concerns what it feels like to be a woman, to grow up as a woman and understand all the cues, that you get a smaller piece of cake.”