The notion of “speaking truth to power” is odd when you think about it. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, “power” already knows the truth; what matters is whether you can bring it to the attention of the wider public. But the expression has a righteous ring to it, and it crops up a fair bit in activist literature, where it is used loosely to mean something like, “standing up for what’s right.”

Jess Phillips, the Labour member of parliament for Birmingham Yardley and leadership contender, is certainly very fond of the phrase: it appears no fewer than thirty-nine times in the 220 pages of her recent book — forty if you count the cover. Truth to Power: 7 Ways to Call Time on B.S. may strike you as a cringeworthy title — that tweely abbreviated profanity sitting a little uncomfortably alongside the pious earnestness of “truth to power” — but its awkward tonality is, in truth, a perfect summary of the book’s contents, which form the basis of her leadership campaign.

Truth to Power is ostensibly a beginner’s guide to workplace and community activism. It features interviews with whistleblowers and activists including Zelda Perkins, a former Miramax employee who called out Harvey Weinstein, and Cara Sanquest, a member of the Together for Yes campaign which helped reform Ireland’s draconian abortion laws.