Jess Phillips hit out at Jeremy Corbyn during her leadership bid but faced questioning on how she plans to appeal to Jeremy Corbyn’s core voters. The Birmingham previously she would “knife Corbyn in the front, not the back” if he damages the party’s chances of electoral success. Ms Phillips dismissed being “hostile” towards the Labour leader and said she will always tell him to his face.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, the prominent backbencher said: “It is a clear metaphor to say that I would always be up front with him which I then went on to be.

“I think that the reality is that if that is the most important thing to you and you can’t sit down and talk to me and hear my side of the story then that’s a shame but I have to move on because we have a job to do. We all have a job to do.”

The host asked: “Do you regret the use of language?”

Ms Phillips replied: “One of the reasons that people in the country actually like people like me is because I talk a little bit like them and that means I will make mistakes and that means I will admit when I make mistakes as well.

“So yes, if I could turn back time I would say I won’t speak behind Jeremy Corbyn’s back, I will always tell him to his face.”

Ms Phillips, who has never held a frontbench or senior parliamentary role since being elected MP Birmingham Yardley in 2015, claimed she is the straight talking candidate that can win back working class support.

She said: “Against a Prime Minister who blusters and lies, Labour needs a leader who will speak truth – to both the Party and the country.”

The Remainer is the third MP to declare they will enter the leadership race, following shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry and shadow treasury minister Clive Lewis.

Ms Phillips continued: “People didn’t trust us.

“I travelled around the country during the general election and what I was hearing from our amazing activists was that people don’t trust us anymore.

“And that’s what I was hearing from voters.

“They don’t think we are honest and they don’t trust us to be the people who get to make the decisions.”

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Ms Phillips said only “when we are clear and straightforward” will voters again back Labour again.

“We’re a party named after the working class who has lost huge parts of its working-class base.

“Unless we address that, we are in big trouble,” she added.

“We have got to be brave and bold and bring people with us, not try and look all ways. Trying to please everyone usually means we have pleased no one. Now is not the time to be meek.”

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