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Friday News Review

24/09/2010, 08:24:01 AM

Not so secret talks

Aides to the former Foreign Secretary are said to have attended a planning meeting with his brother’s supporters to discuss a possible role in the event that he loses. The overture is being seen as a signal that the elder Mr Miliband, long regarded as the front-runner in the race to succeed Gordon Brown, is bracing himself for defeat. But members of his camp told The Guardian that he was simply taking sensible precautions. In the event that he wins, the move could also be regarded as a timely olive branch to avert a damaging fraternal rift. – The Telegraph

Senior advisers to the two Miliband camps held a secret planning meeting at which they discussed what role each might play in the other’s shadow cabinet when one of them loses the knife-edge battle to becomeLabour leader. It is understood that Jim Murphy, one of David Miliband‘s two campaign managers, attended the meeting with members of the Ed Milband camp to map out how they would handle Saturday’s dramatic leadership result. David Miliband’s campaign said they regarded the discussions as just exploring sensible precautions. The Ed Miliband campaign took the willingness of his older brother’s camp to discuss the consequences of defeat as a sign they are bracing for Ed seizing the leadership in the final lap. – The Guardian

Is it Ed’s?

Until now I’ve been saying that I thought it was a 50-50 chance between the Miliband brothers and that that an EdM bet was the better value because his price was longer. Now I’m changing my view – I believe that Ed Miliband has a better chance of winning. There are two main reasons – firstly the progress his campaign seems to have made in the MP/MEP third of the electoral college. Here it only took a very few changes of mind or alteration of the positioning of the Milibands on the AV list for there to be a big impact. Last night SkyNews was reporting that a former minister was saying that the EdM deficit here was down to just 14 votes. Whether that was on first preferences or after the lower preferences had kicked in we do not know but there’s a sense that progress has been by the younger brother. – Political Betting

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Thursday News Review

23/09/2010, 07:58:50 AM

It’s almost over

The five-month long contest for the Labour leadership ended tonight as the ballot closed, leaving the two Miliband brothers, David and Ed, waiting until Saturday afternoon to discover which of them will be given the task of leading the party. The result, which is said to be too close to call, will be announced at the opening of the party’s annual conference in Manchester, giving the new leader two days to prepare his set-piece speech to the conference. Both camps exuded private confidence that they had won, but also stressed that the victor would reach out not only to his brother, but also to rival supporters to heal any wounds inflicted during the contest. – The Guardian

The 109-day leadership election is over. On Saturday 25 September, the 20th leader of the Labour Party will be announced at its annual conference in Manchester. His name will be Miliband. Whether the victor is David or Ed – and we have made clear our preference for the latter but also our admiration for the former – the challenge facing the new leader will be the same. How will he rebuild a party that slumped to its second-worst vote share since 1918? How will he refresh and re-energise Labour, which left office after 13 years demoralised, fractious and hollowed out? And how, above all, does the new leader persuade the electorate that the party can once again be trusted to form a government and manage economic policy? – The New Statesman

What now?

David Miliband made a plea for unity yesterday as the ballot closed in the contest for the Labour leadership. Mr Miliband, the slight favourite ahead of his brother Ed, said the contest had been “hard and tough”. He added: “Whatever the result on Saturday, we have all said we will unite behind the party’s choice and turn all of our energy into exposing the new government and presenting a strong Labour alternative. “This is a vital time for the country, which needs a strong Labour opposition.” – The Mirror

Four long months after it wheezed into life, the Labour leadership contest has proved one thing beyond doubt: for all the ideological gymnastics of the New Labour years, the party’s political centre remains much where it ever was – on what used to be called the soft left. Spurning the most laissez-faire aspects of the Blair and Brown years has been obligatory. Ahigh pay commission and living wage are the season’s policy must-haves. Equality is all the rage; even David Miliband has been chided by the Times for looking dangerously social democratic. What has happened to the party’s right? Most of its remaining number are clustered around MiliD, and aside from the odd pop at “Red” MiliE, keeping shtoom. But do not be fooled: they are as fired up as ever, and preparing for a return once the membership gets back to leaflets and balloons. – The Guardian

Waiting game

Plans to inform candidates 30 minutes before the announcement, after removing mobiles, reminds me of the TV carry-on surrounding the 2007 deputy leadership. Sky did a deal with Alan Johnson’s enforcer, Gerry Sutcliffe, to receive a signal as the hopefuls left a briefing room before entering the hall – if Sutcliffe departed wearing glasses, Johnson had won. Reeling at a narrow defeat, Sutcliffe forgot and emerged four-eyed. So Sky News wrongly reported that Johnson had triumphed. The BBC reached an understanding with one of Hattie’s entourage under which arm a handbag would be carried. Thus the Beeb correctly predicted that Harperson would be crowned. Look out for unusual nose-scratching in Manchester. – The New Statesman

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Wednesday News Review

22/09/2010, 07:31:25 AM

Last day of voting

Supporters of each of the five candidates for the Labour leadership are making a last-ditch effort to secure votes before polling closes. MPs, MEPs and party members have until 5pm to cast their ballots, and votes are expected to be cast electronically via the Labour website right up until the last minute. Voting for members of trade unions and affiliated organisations closed on Tuesday. Polls suggest that shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband had closed the gap on brother David as the race came to the wire. But bookmakers Ladbrokes still made shadow foreign secretary David 1-2 favourite on Tuesday night, ahead of his younger brother on 6-4. – The Press Association

Today voting ends in Labour’s leadership contest. Mirror readers who are Labour members have until 5pm to vote. It takes just a minute online. I will be a leader who will make sure that Labour will again be a party which stands up for the hard-working majority in Britain. We all know what happened under 18 years of Tory rule. And just look at what they’ve done in their first few weeks – hiked VAT to 20%, slashed Tax Credits, frozen Child Benefit, threatened Winter Fuel Payments, axed new school buildings. Cameron promised compassionate Conservatism, but is showing that for the majority there is no such thing. – Ed Miliband, The Mirror

Left Ed, Right Ed

According to his critics, he’s a dangerous left-wing radical who, if he ever became prime minister, would take Britain back to the Socialist 1970s. According to his supporters, he’s the man who will lead Labour away from Blairism and reconnect the party with its core supporters and traditional values. Both his detractors and supporters are in agreement that Ed Miliband – who could well be Labour leader when the results of the party ballot are revealed this weekend – is the candidate for ‘change’. Miliband himself has as his campaign slogan: ‘Call for Change’. But if we look beyond the rhetoric and the sound-bites, a very different picture emerges. The reality is that Ed Miliband is not so much the ‘change’ candidate, but a politician who will deliver more of the same neo-liberal policies that both Conservative and Labour governments have followed over the past 30 years. – The First Post

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Tuesday News Review

21/09/2010, 08:07:34 AM

Liberal rebellion

Clegg’s speech was overshadowed by a massive revolt over the coalition’s schools policy. Party members overwhelmingly passed a motion opposing plans to create more academies and free schools, which are free from local authority control. The motion, which took party leaders by surprise, said there was a risk that the new schools would increase “social divisiveness and inequity in a system that is already unfair”. The defeat is particularly troubling for the Liberal Democrats because members are supposed to set official party policy at conference. That means the party leadership is in the uncomfortable position of promoting a policy that has been vetoed by grass roots members. – City AM

Liberal Democrat councils are on a collision course with Nick Clegg by campaigning against the creation of “free schools” in their communities. Following a rebellion by party activists against the Coalition’s flagship education policy, the conference voted to boycott the new schools because they increased “social divisiveness and inequity”. A succession of activists, including many councillors, protested that allowing parents to set up new schools beyond town hall control would benefit better-off families to the detriment of those in poorer areas, and could also lead to selection by the back door. In a snub to the party leadership, they convincingly defeated an attempt to water down a motion critical of free schools. – The Independent

Former MPs and PCCs back David and Ed (Balls)

The poll of former Labour MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates by Channel 4 News found overwhelming support for David Miliband, with former chancellor Ed Balls just pipping Mr Miliband’s younger brother Ed Miliband for second place. Channel 4 News spoke to former MPs who lost their marginal seats in May and to candidates who lost, despite standing in seats where there had been a sitting Labour MP.They all aspire to win back the seats Labour will need to secure if the party is to return to government. – Channel 4

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Monday News Review

20/09/2010, 07:00:23 AM

Lammy at Lib Dem conference

So to David Lammy. The Labour MP acknowledges that some think his party is too aggressive towards the Lib Dems and is getting more tribal. I would certainly put myself in the pluralist quarter of the Labour party but it may be shrinking to 10%. I don’t think any one political party has all the ideas. We need to get used to ministers being able to publicly disagree within government.” He gets applause for this. – Guardian blogs.

Ashcroft’s departure

“Going into the election, many voters had little clear idea of what we stood for or what we intended to do in government. At a national level, too much of our message was focused on unnecessary and counterproductive attacks on Gordon Brown and Labour, which meant that voters were not clear about our own plans.” – Lord Ashcroft, FT.

Lib Dems on 9/11

The Lib Dem motion notes “the widespread public concern about the human rights abuses that have taken place since 11 September 2001 under the guise of the so-called ‘war on terror’ initiated by the Bush government and backed by the Labour government in the UK. The abuses have included enforced disappearance, rendition and torture.” It also says “there has been a lack of transparency as to whether and to what extent the UK has been involved in these abuses and that such a lack of clear information is both detrimental to Britain’s reputation and damaging to public confidence in our security services”. – The Guardian.

‘Useful Idiots’

Labour’s Liam Byrne accused the Lib Dems of being the “Tories’ useful idiots”, who offer “progressive poses for a Conservative Budget that hits the poorest hardest and an economic strategy that puts honest people’s jobs at risk”.
The measures against tax evasion came amid reports that Tory backer Lord Ashcrof is to quit as the party’s deputy chairman after attacking its failure to win an outright majority at the General Election. – Mix 96.

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Sunday News Review

19/09/2010, 07:56:34 AM

The smart money

There’s been a big plunge of money for Ed Miliband to become the new Labour leader, with polls indicating he has a strong chance of victory. William Hill have reported big chunks of money for Ed Miliband in their Labour leadership race betting, with the candidate now 11/8 from 3/1 to beat the rest of the pack – the shortest odds that he has been since the contest began. – bettingpro.com

It was your fault

Lord Mandelson told a BBC Radio 4 documentary that the manifesto failed to address those who were not “natural, or automatic” Labour voters. Ed Miliband, a candidate for the Labour leadership, wrote the manifesto but Lord Mandelson accused him of now distancing himself from the document. – bbc.co.uk

Peter Mandelson has launched a blistering attack on Left-wing Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband, blaming him for the party’s General Election defeat. He mocked Mr Miliband for producing a ‘crowd-pleasing Guardianista’ manifesto that ‘offered nothing to people worried about immigration, housing and welfare scroungers’. ‘Nobody else authored the manifesto,’ said Lord Mandelson, who is backing Ed’s Blairite brother David Miliband for the Labour leadership. – Daily Mail

All eyes on Clegg

Nick Clegg has launched the ‘yes’ campaign for the AV referendum amid ever more angry attacks from Ed Miliband. The Labour leadership candidate, who has built his campaign on his ability to attract votes from the Liberal Democrats, said he would “make sure he is punished at the ballot box” for joining government with the Conservatives.

Ed Miliband went further than most with a remarkable outburst against the deputy prime minister. “Nick Clegg has taken the Lib Dems in a direction that they may never recover from, Nick Clegg has sold out to the Tories, and I will lead a Labour party that makes sure he is punished at the ballot box for it.” – politics.co.uk

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Saturday News Review

18/09/2010, 07:56:32 AM

Another Lib Dem defector – How many is that now?

Solihull Lib Dem councillor Simon Slater has defected to the Labour Party. At a press conference in Solihull High Street on Friday Ian Austin, Labour MP for Dudley North, welcomed Coun Slater to the Labour fold and hinted there could be more defections to come across the West Midlands. – Solihull News

The Mirror’s final pitch

So we urge MPs, Labour Party members and those in affiliated trade unions and socialist societies to cast their votes, online or by post, for David Miliband before the ballot closes next Wednesday. Supporters of Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott should consider giving second preferences to David Miliband. The head must rule the heart. It might appear cool to vote for Ed Miliband but the sensible choice is David Miliband. – The Mirror

“If we make the wrong choice we’ll leave Labour stuck in opposition for many years, that’s why this is too important a vote to ignore and it’s the reason the Daily Mirror has backed David. The people who really want him to lose are the Tories.” – Alan Johnson, The Mirror

Kinnock wades in again

Kinnock airs their differences publicly when he tells a Channel 4 docudrama of his surprise at David Miliband’s behaviour towards his younger brother, saying: “David’s response to Ed running has, to my astonishment, been deeply resentful. David’s people are spreading all kinds of bloody bile about Ed being in thrall to the left and he would be in the pocket of the unions and all kinds of crap like that.” – The Guardian

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Friday News Review

17/09/2010, 07:00:28 AM

Miliband: 'winning support'

For the first time in thirty years, the Labour Party is electing a new leader without knowing in advance who it is likely to be. There are other parallels with 1980: Labour has recently been evicted from office, and its successors are turning out to be radical remakers of the state. – The Economist.

“I went into a briefing on a white paper for children [as chairman of the council’s children’s services scrutiny panel]. There was nothing in there for the children of the borough or anywhere else in the country. They are going to put the weakest to the wall. That was the last straw” – Barnsley councillor Lynne Brook on defecting from the Lib Dems to Labour BBC News.

With delegates heading to Liverpool for the annual conference of the Liberal Democrats, the challenge for Nick Clegg is to keep his party behind him as the government begins to flesh out what will be cut from its budget. His party is tanking in the polls and the mood among rank and file may not have been lifted by an interview he gave defending cuts to welfare. – The Guardian.

‘I’m winning support from MPs, members, unions and people outside the party, so I think all claims should be taken with a large pinch of salt. It’s my ideas for the future that have put me in the lead in this contest. I have been a candidate standing for what I am for in the future and not what I am against in the past. – David Miliband, Metro.

Admit it, Clegg, you’re in love. You rise each morning with that ache of uncertainty in your breast. You choose that tie, that suit, those shoes with him in mind. You scurry early to the office, practising the phrase that will please him, the gesture he will notice. When you first see him in the corridor … you can’t help it. The knees go. He is adorable. – Simon Jenkins on Nick Clegg’s leadership love The Guardian.

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Thursday News Review

16/09/2010, 08:29:35 AM

Mili-sagaThe battle of the Miliband brothers exploded yesterday – when David claimed Ed risked being a “heroic failure” if he won the Labour leadership. Ed privately told union bosses at the TUC he thought he had it sewn up but David said his younger sibling could repeat Michael Foot’s mistakes in 1983’s election disaster. He warned: “We cannot allow ourselves to become heroic failures again.” But Ed, lifted by a poll putting him two points up, told the BBC: “I am increasingly confident.” They will appear on Question Time tonight with rivals Andy Burnham, Ed Balls and Diane Abbott. – The Mirror

David Miliband has won the support of more of Labour’s new generation of MPs than his younger brother, Ed. Allies of the shadow Foreign Secretary trumpeted his lead as they sought to fight his brother’s claims that he has the momentum in Labour’s leadership election. Of the 64 Labour MPs elected for the first time in May, 29 have now declared their support for David, and 25 for Ed. In a statement, those backing David made a coded criticism of Ed, who has been accused of telling Labour members what they want to hear during the campaign. They said: “We think that David has best understood how we must regain the trust of those who have turned away from us. That not only must we re-energise our supporters and shape a new movement together, we must also reach out to the whole country and never be satisfied with simply talking to ourselves.” – The Independent

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Wednesday News Review

15/09/2010, 07:16:00 AM

Closest since 2007

Factor in the usual caveats about polling so soon after a change of government, but the latest Sun/YouGov poll is still pretty eyecatching. It has the Tories on 40 percent, Labour on 39 and the Lib Dems on 12 – the smallest gap between the two main parties since the election-that-never-was in October 2007. Here’s a graph of the the two parties’ positions since the beginnning of the general election campaign:

The Spectator

David twice as popular

David Miliband is the choice of Labour voters to be the next leader of the party, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent. He is more than twice as popular as his nearest rival, his younger brother Ed, when Labour supporters are asked to name their preferred candidate; who would make the best leader of the opposition; the best prime minister and have the best chance of leading Labour back to power. The poll, conducted among more than 1,500 people who have voted Labour at least once since 1992, found that David Miliband was also the most likely of the five Labour leadership candidates to win over floating voters and those people who backed Labour in 2005 but switched to the Liberal Democrats or Conservative Party this year. – The Independent

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