Jess Phillips says she woke up feeling 'sad' after quitting Labour's front bench over Gaza vote

Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips chose to defy her party and its leader on Wednesday night as she, along with 55 other Labour MPs, voted in favour of a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The amendment has been brought forward by the SNP with Birmingham Erdington MP Paulette Hamilton saying MPs should 'think twice' as it was purely to cause division.
Eight shadow ministers and two parliamentary private secretaries left Sir Keir Starmer's top team rather than backing his calls for so-called "humanitarian pauses".
Speaking to ITV News Central in Birmingham today, Jess Phillips MP said: "I wasn't certain how I would vote really until the morning of the vote. I worked very, very hard with Labour colleagues and the Labour leadership as well to make sure that the Labour Party also had amendments, which I supported.
"It didn't come easily. It also hasn't been shouty and nasty in people saying, you know, you'll be fired and people leaning on me, which often gets resented in politics.
"But on the morning of the vote, I felt like my constituents, who have been very kind and reasonable and caring but hurt by what they see happening, I felt like I had to go both with my heart in what I thought, but also with them."
When asked about if a ceasefire would allow Hamas the time to pause, regroup, rebuild and then attack Israel even further, Phillips said: "That is undoubtedly a concern for the whole world. I don't think that Hamas will recognise a ceasefire just like I don't think Israel will currently recognize a ceasefire."
She says she felt 'sad' waking up this morning in her Birmingham home, no longer a member of the Shadow Cabinet.