Houghton and Sunderland South.

A Cabinet minister breaking with government on one of Parliament's most charged recent votes, Bridget Phillipson voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at every stage -- Second Reading in November 2024, Report Stage amendments in May 2025, and Third Reading in June 2025 -- placing her among the bill's consistent opponents despite Labour's majority supporting it each time. Beyond assisted dying, her voting record is tightly loyal: a 98.1% party-line record across other divisions, with recent votes backing steel nationalisation, the King's Speech programme, and tighter asylum support rules.

As Education Secretary, Phillipson is one of the most active speakers in the Commons, with 994 contributions across 102 debates -- well above average for a minister -- concentrated heavily on education, social care, and the labour market. She sits 48 percentage points below her party average on assisted dying access and notably above it on welfare reform and consumer protection, but otherwise tracks government positions closely. Her stance profile shows strong alignment with workers' rights and progressive taxation, and near-zero alignment with business-friendly or civil liberties positions. She holds no select committee seats, consistent with her frontbench role.

Phillipson attracted significant media attention in late 2025 when she launched a campaign for Labour deputy leader, earning trade union backing and coverage in the Sunderland Echo and LabourList for her record on free school meals, childcare expansion, and a revived Sure Start programme -- the Guardian carried her own piece framing it as "a watershed moment." A hostile column in March 2026 attacked her competence directly, though broader 90-day news sentiment is mildly positive, with education and childcare coverage the most favourable. Parliamentary debate data covers her ministerial activity in full; constituency casework data is not available.