Jess Phillips’ entry into the Labour race will spark a vigorous debate about the party’s future

Against expectations, the Labour leadership election offers an array of talented candidates espousing a wide range of views. The most surprising candidate so far has been Jess Phillips, who was interviewed by our political editor on Saturday.

Ms Phillips is not short of self-belief, declaring, “I am able to cut through to the public,” and boasting that her ability to persuade people that she is on their side is “magical in politics”.

Like Keir Starmer, the frontrunner, and Rebecca Long Bailey, the candidate favoured by Momentum, the grouping of Jeremy Corbyn supporters in the Labour Party, Ms Phillips has been an MP only since 2015. But Mr Starmer previously held a senior role in public service, as director of public prosecutions, before he became an MP, and he and Ms Long Bailey have both served for several years on the opposition front bench.

Ms Phillips, on the other hand, has been no more than an outspoken backbencher. “I haven’t been on the front bench,” she admits in her interview, “but I have managed to both change policy, get the opposition to listen to me and to fear me, and – much more importantly – reach the country from the third row. Imagine what I could do from the front row.”

It is true that some Conservatives think that she would be the most difficult candidate for the prime minister to handle. And it is also true that she has made quite a mark – for a backbencher – with the general public. A BMG opinion poll for The Independent finds that she is more favoured as a possible Labour leader by the general electorate than Ms Long Bailey (although the numbers, 7 per cent and 5 per cent, are low and some way behind the 16 per cent for Mr Starmer).

There is another plank to Ms Phillips’s platform about which she is less forthcoming, but it is no less important: that she is the candidate of a clean break with Corbynism.

The list of MPs who have nominated her is a roll call of the Blairites, of whom there are still a large number in the parliamentary party. How many of them there are among Labour members – or, perhaps more importantly, among people who join the Labour Party in order to vote in the leadership election – is one of the big unknowns of this contest.

That means there are two candidates in this election who are not associated with Mr Corbyn’s leadership. Ms Phillips speaks more for the Remainers, although insists that she has not said Britain should “rejoin” the EU, while Lisa Nandy speaks for the Labour Leave seats of the north of England, the midlands and Wales, where last month’s election was lost.

There are also two candidates who served in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, again a Remainer (Mr Starmer) and one more sympathetic to Brexit (Ms Long Bailey). They also offer a sharp ideological contrast, with Ms Long Bailey defending Mr Corbyn and his policies while Mr Starmer said in his speech on Saturday that “each and every reason” for Labour’s defeat had to be “addressed”.

We will not know until 2.30pm on Monday whether these four candidates will be joined by Emily Thornberry or Clive Lewis for the next phase of the contest, but already the stage is set for a vigorous but thoughtful contest among a diverse range of candidates.

Ms Phillips has already made her mark. Now she must convince Labour members – and beyond them the wider electorate – that her “magical” communication skills can also translate into the effective leadership of the nation’s government.