Political rebellions are rarely clean and this one is no exception. Here is what we normally see when a politician assumes the leadership of a major party. They have a history of appearing on TV programmes and are well acquainted with influential journalists; they have a highly professional team with experience of dealing with reporters hungry for news lines. They can expect to recruit sympathetic former journalists and have a trusting network of others. Thanks to their long-standing ambitions, they have avoided saying or doing anything controversial for many years.
This is what happens if they are a member of the political elite and accept the current consensus. If you are a backbench MP with no prior personal ambition beyond representing your constituency and your causes – such as workers’ rights and peace – this does not apply. It especially doesn’t apply if you join a party leadership contest at odds of 200-1, with beliefs that put you outside the political consensus accepted by the media.
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