UK has got ‘fat’ on decades of free labour by women, says MP Jess Phillips | Jess Phillips

Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got “fat” from the free labour of women for decades.

The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls said the country has relied on women providing charity, adding it was a “fundamentally sexist” practice that meant the government was less willing to provide the service itself.

She said she “hated” the title of her role and added that safeguarding against gender-based violence should be “business as usual in every single government department”.

The Birmingham Yardley MP also suggested there was an issue in Whitehall where government departments viewed violence against women and girls as solely a Home Office issue.

Phillips said she had to push for the safety of women and girls to be a “mainstream concern”,…