• Summerskill urges Phillips to follow him in quitting
• Stonewall chief is sixth commissioner to leave

Trevor Phillips, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was under further pressure last night after one of the watchdog’s best known members resigned and urged Phillips to quit.

Ben Summerskill, of the gay rights group Stonewall, submitted his resignation to the minister for women and equality, Harriet Harman, at lunchtime yesterday, becoming the sixth commissioner to resign from the EHRC amid questions over Phillips’s stewardship. He said that Phillips’s leadership style had “unnerved” many commissioners and that the media scrutiny surrounding the chair had begun to interfere with the commission’s work.

“There were yet more headlines today and there comes a point when someone – particularly someone like Trevor who routinely describes himself as a politician – has to recognise that the headlines are destructive,” said Summerskill. “There are millions of people in this country whose lives are still disfigured by prejudice and every hour that the commission is arguing about who its chair is that is an hour that is not being spent focused on changing the lives of those people.”

Phillips, whose reappointment last week by Harman caused surprise, had failed to bring together the diverse talent of the commission’s board despite being a brilliant communicator, according to Summerskill. He said he believed commissioners had felt taken for granted or that their input was not valuable. “It’s simply not correct to suggest – as Trevor has – that these differences are solely about matters of policy or modernity.”

He said many commissioners had been alienated by Phillips issuing pronouncements without consulting the board.

He added: “Trevor has repeatedly told commissioners that he could easily earn £1m a year making television programmes in the private sector. He might reflect that not only would that be more profitable for him, it might perhaps be more profitable for the commission’s work as well.”

It also emerged yesterday that Alun Davies, head of the disability committee, has resigned. Davies said he had made the decision two months ago. A further two or three commissioners are understood to be considering their positions.

Kay Hampton, who resigned in March, said she was “not surprised but devastated” to hear that Summerskill had also left. “There are now only 10 commissioners left and I know at least two more are considering their positions,” she said. “If they go, then half have gone and the commission is not viable.”

The EHRC described Summerskill’s resignation as “regrettable”, but said it remained focused on its responsibilities to the public.