Journalist and political commentator Melanie Phillips has launched her own media company publishing high-brow books as well as selling branded tote bags and mobile phone covers.

Ms Phillips, a high-profile columnist for the Daily Mail and the JC, and a prolific author, has set up EM (short for Electric Media) in an effort, she said, to stand up for the little guy.

The company will bypass traditional publishers to release books on digital platforms, as well as producing a range of merchandise.

Topics being covered by EM publications include the parenting of teenagers, royalty and the scapegoating of intellectuals.

The company will publish Ms Phillips’s own work — top of the list is her autobiography, Guardian Angel, My Story, My Britain — as well as work by her husband, legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg.

She said: “ EM books will have broad appeal over a wide variety of topics, all aimed at the centre ground of public opinion — and the Middle East will have a place within that”.

Ms Phillips explained that the aim of the company was “speaking truth to power, standing up for the little guy and giving voice to those on the decent, commonsense, middle-ground who find themselves marginalised by the gatekeepers of public discourse”.