Review: “Let’s Be Honest” by Jess Phillips – Clear Manifesto Falls Flat

To paraphrase Rishi Sunak at the dispatch box the other week, politics comes at you pretty fast. Jess Phillips likely hoped her new book would be released before a general election was announced. As she corrected her proofs, she could not have known that by the time it reached bookshops, the campaign would be over, and she would find herself as the new parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Home Office. The very people she criticizes in the book, especially Tories, have now vanished into insignificance. Esther McVey, the former minister for common sense, is relegated to GB News. Now, Phillips’s civil servants can freely wear their rainbow lanyards, something McVey wanted to ban.

Government is incredibly challenging. In the future, Phillips, the Birmingham Yardley MP since 2015, might want to reframe “Let’s Be Honest.” Its essential message could be summarized as, “Politics is great, except when it’s done by anyone other than me and my party.” The only truly insightful books about life at Westminster usually come from former practitioners, their disillusionment palpable throughout (Rory Stewart’s “Politics on the Edge” is fascinating and some of his descriptions of former colleagues certainly had me reaching for a clothes peg). But for now, we must deal with the book at hand, unfortunately, its title is a bit of a hostage to fortune. Dishonesty appears here as omission; in the end, Phillips’s tribal politics is a sickness she suffers from just as much as the next MP.

The best chapter is about violence against women and what can be done to change it.

Phillips dislikes it when people claim all politicians are the same. She’s different, for one! But she knows what they mean. Large sections of her book, subtitled “Truth, Lies and Politics,” criticize David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss. She also takes aim at easily criticized targets. Conservative MP Nick Fletcher, termed a “political non-entity,” faces her wrath for doing “naff all” about young men and violence, while complaining about male role models being played by women in shows like “Doctor Who” and “Ghostbusters.” Thankfully for Phillips, Fletcher lost his seat, so his “meh-ness” is no longer her problem.

Phillips recounts how, ahead of a Cameron visit, a youth project she was working on received “thousands of pounds” for a graffiti installation to make him look edgy. Most of us long ago grasped that Cameron briefly wanted to be down with the kids. Generally, her book tells us what we already know. Theresa May was paralyzed by Brexit! Truss’s financial decisions affected mortgage repayments! The writing in the book leaves much to be desired. Johnson, she says, is “shy and withering,” which makes you pause. Apparently, he looks “terrified” whenever she meets him, leaving one to wonder if she meant wimpy or something else entirely.

Like many voters, I like Phillips and admire her to a degree. I understand her busy schedule: the demanding constituency workload and long days in London. But why bother writing a book if there’s no time to do it properly? Resorting to quotes from her husband, brother, and sometimes Wikipedia detracts from its impact. The repetitive use of words like “fucking” for emphasis doesn’t help. It’s great that she believes in herself, this is her fourth book, but some subjects are better left for others to tackle.

The best chapter discusses violence against women, an issue she illustrates as a field where politics can make a difference, also reflecting her expertise. She calls for proper data and funding, stressing that Labour must be truthful about this challenge: it will struggle to end this epidemic, even with set targets. There is no quick fix. Yet, she avoids recent issues her party faces regarding gender, the Equality Act, and single-sex spaces, leaving some women unsure if they can trust Labour. While she points out Tory divisions, such as the European Research Group, the Labour Party is not immune to internal conflicts. Jeremy Corbyn is absent from the book, and Labour MP Kate Osborne, with controversial statements, compares to Conservative Miriam Cates, another of Phillips’s irritations.

So, yes, let’s be honest. Let’s not be selective. If Phillips’s book sets forth the politics she envisions for the future, straightforwardness must apply universally. Failures, regardless of who is responsible, cannot be ignored. Anything less will only fuel the discontent and alienation she aims to dispel.

“Let’s Be Honest: Truth, Lies and Politics” by Jess Phillips is published by Gallery (£20).

Source: The Guardian