Part of David Cameron’s successful pitch to the Conservative rank-and-file was his subliminal message to a beaten and demoralised party – £20m in debt, reeling from three elections that had produced the worst, second-worst, and fourth-worst defeats in its history, all to Tony Blair – was: I’m your Blair.
Jess Philips is trying to do something similar. She’s saying to a Labour party that has lost four elections on the bounce: I’m your Boris Johnson. That’s the through line of all of her appearances in this contest thus far – from her media round on the night of the general election to her slick formal launch video tonight, which has unveiled her campaign slogan: “speak truth, win power”.
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