Miliband contacts Walcott
“If one of the candidates … shows, bona fide, that they’ve got 32 and they need a 33rd nominee I’ve still got my nomination to make and that’s the nomination I can control. When I say I want the more the merrier, that’s what I mean.” – David Miliband, The Guardian
“Labour Party members are crying out for fresh thinking, but the four main candidates look well placed to provide Labour with more of the same. They are all creatures of New Labour. To quote Diane Abbott, they are ‘all male, all white, all former policy wonks’. The initial PR challenge identified by all four candidates is thus to break free from the shackles of New Labour.” – PR Week
“My message to Theo is, ‘don’t give up. Stay fit. Stay fit over the summer and make sure you are ready for the new season’. He is still young – only 21, – and I look forward to his participation in the next World Cup.” – David Miliband, The Mirror
Cooper "would have been the best candidate by far"
“I don’t suppose there is a working mother who did not sympathise with Yvette Cooper’s plea that she would prefer to read bedtime stories to her children than lead the Labour Party – for now. Still, it was a sad day, because she would have been the best female candidate by far, possibly the best candidate altogether.” – New Statesman ”
Back at the North London school where Abbott launched her campaign, she told Voice Of America even if her leadership bid is not a success, she hopes it may inspire young ethnic minorities to join the political arena.” – Voice of America
Popularity Stakes
Cruddas
“Just one Labour figure manages a positive rating. Jon Cruddas, the campaigning backbencher who saw off a challenge from the BNP in his Dagenham and Rainham seat, is in ninth place with a rating of +3. There is bad news for Ed Balls, the shadow schools secretary, who has just managed to secure enough nominations from MPs to go through to the electoral college stage of the Labour leadership contest. Balls ties with Lord Mandelson in last place with a rating of -39.” – Survey by PoliticsHome in The Guardian
Brown Remembered
“Gordon Brown will go down in history as the first ever member of the Co-operative Party to serve as Prime Minister. But much more than that, he will take his rightful place in the history of the Movement for leading a government that provided the most comprehensive package of reforms for co-operatives. The review of the legislation governing the co-operative and mutual sector provided enormous benefits to co-operative organisations and finally placed them on a level playing field with other forms of business; something no government had achieved before.” – Co-op Party Chair Michael Stephenson, Cooperative News
Mandelson on new Labour
Mandy writes memoir “Lord Mandelson reads the last rites over new Labour today, declaring that the project that he helped to fashion “died on May 6, 2010”. The architect of the party’s recovery from electoral oblivion and its 13-year reign reveals that he is about to deliver the project’s full obituary. “It will no doubt ruffle some feathers,” he says of his memoir to be published this summer.” – The Times
Back in the Commons…
“It is not proper government to come to the House, to make an announcement and then it turn out he has not even seen the advice on which the advice has not been made … the right way to do it is to get the information first, then make the decisions and then report them to the House – that is a better way to do things.’ – Ed Balls challenges Gove on education savings, Daily Mail
From the Mailbag
“The declared candidates for the Labour leadership wax lyrical about ‘renewal’, ‘vision’ and other such hothouse terms from the Westminster laboratory (Comment, 1 June). I regret that this zeal for reinvention has not percolated through to the PLP.” – Mike Cowley, Letters to The Guardian
Tags: Abbott, Balls, Cruddas, Labour leadership, Labour Party, Mandelson, Miliband, News, Walcott, Yvette Cooper
