Five Conservative Party leadership candidates are battling it out to make it to the bottom two in the race to be the next prime minister after making their appeal to MPs for support.
Rishi Sunak launched his campaign with a video about his upbringing, Penny Mordaunt raised eyebrows with some bombastic flag-waving, and Liz Truss played it safe by setting out her stand as a “trust” candidate.
Mark Borkowski, one of Britain’s top PR experts, said some of the other contenders had launched impressively “slick” campaigns – but still had a long way to go to connect with the country as Boris Johnson once did.
The communications professional ranks the candidates’ branding efforts, giving The Independent their verdict on how their presentation style might go down with party members and the general public.
1. Rishi Sunak
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Borkowski said he was impressed by the video that launched Sunak’s campaign, focusing on his grandmother’s Indian roots and his family’s move to Britain in the 1960s. “It was very elegant, very well done, very effective in communicating his personal story to the public,” he said.
“Ready for Rishi is a decent tagline, the presentation is fresh and his team will be very well prepared to push more on social media,” the expert said. “People like chancellors who give them money. He will remind people how he got them through the Covid crisis.”
He added: “Sunak is one of the best communicators since Tony Blair in terms of glossing over difficult issues. But I just wonder how quickly people will forget and forgive Boris Johnson and start to miss him.
2. Penny Mordaunt
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Borkowski said Mordaunt has a “significant PR team behind it”, adding: “Like Rishi’s team, they have obviously looked to people outside of politics for help with the presentation.”
He added: “The phrase PM4PM might seem a bit awkward – but it fits the way she understands media, social media and how to use digestible soundbites.”
Although she was mocked for her patriotic clip, the PR expert said it could be effective. “Ships in Portsmouth, military imagery, the flag – mocking heritage stereotypes is setting people up for the idea that she can bring back the Thatcher era,” Borkowski said.
3. Liz Truss
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Borkowski said: “Liz Truss is another who is trying to channel Margaret Thatcher, in her case the idea of a strong, reliable leader.
“It’s a bit safe, a bit simple. She has a record of never missing a photo opportunity and a chance to advertise herself. So I’m a little surprised that she’s a little lost. I don’t think her campaign has gone as well as her team would have expected.’
4. Tom Tugendhat
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Borkowski praised the underdog’s modest performance in the first week of competition. But he suggested the branding might be “a little too contrived” for someone who should be playing the “authenticity and humility card”.
“It’s a very American performance,” he said. “It’s slippery. The phrase ‘clean start’ certainly captures the fact that he wants us to move on from Boris Johnson.” It’s fresh and the brand reflects that. But it’s trying too hard, and from a marketing perspective, people tend to see that.
5. Kemi Badenoch
(Kemi Badenoch/Twitter)
Borkowski also praised the anti-awakening outsider’s efforts to win support from the right, but said the performance – including the Kemi for prime minister slogan – “wasn’t particularly clever”.
He added: “You see there is no big professional PR team there to help her. I think she performed well. She has apparently called on MPs in the party to get more MPs behind her, but it is hard to see how she would fare nationally based on the campaign.
He added that Suella Braverman, kicked out of the race on Thursday after launching her Suella 4 Leader campaign over the weekend, was struggling to appeal beyond the party’s right-wing Brexiteers.
“Like Badenoch, Braverman has proven to be a very authentic commentator, even if he doesn’t have PR professionals behind him,” Borkowski said. “She didn’t try to be something she wasn’t. But she failed to appeal to the general public.”
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