It wouldn’t be an election without a political broadcast and the race to become Labour’s mayoral candidate is no different – over the past few weeks most of the runners hoping to replace Boris Johnson have released their own short film.
Below are my favourites – they come from (in order of date of release) the campaigns of David Lammy, Tessa Jowell and Diane Abbott.
Lammy and Jowell’s are both sleek, carefully honed efforts packed with stock footage, rousing music and highly and effectively calibrated anecdotes.
It’s impossible not to be won over by Lammy’s mention of the KFC he worked in or of being “written off all of my life”, or by Jowell’s reminiscence of persuading first Tony Blair and then the cabinet to back London’s Olympic bid.
But there’s something about the sheer simplicity of Abbott’s bus tour through London as she highlights our growing housing crisis which, for me at least, trumps her rivals’ glossier efforts.
All three are powerful, articulate films of which the campaigns should be proud and they neatly encapsulate the difficulty for Labour members as they start choosing from a field of runners which, for the first time ever, boasts more than one credible Mayoral candidate.
David Lammy
Tessa Jowell
Diane Abbott
