David Miliband « Labour Uncut

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Timetable for the Election of the Leader of the Labour Party

07/06/2010, 12:00:11 PM

After several requests, we’re publishing the formal timetable for the leadership race below.

This is the information sent to MPs by Labour’s General Secretary Ray Collins.

May
Monday, 24 May	2.30pm Opening of PLP nominations Stakeholder mailing: procedural information packs, including nomination and supporting nomination papers 5.30pm MP nominations posted on Labour Party website; thereafter, twice daily at 12.30pm and 5.30pm until close of nomination process.
June
Monday, 7 June	7.00pm PLP Hustings
Wednesday, 9 June	12.30pm Close of PLP Nominations 1.00pm Procedures Committee to declare all validly nominated candidates. Email to all members
Thursday, 10 June	12.00pm deadline for acceptance of nomination by validly nominated candidates. Supporting nominations open
Friday, 11 June	Youth Hustings, London
Sunday, 13 June	Hustings, Glasgow
Saturday, 19 June	BAME Hustings, Leicester
Saturday, 26 June	Hustings, Newcastle
July
Sunday, 4 July	Hustings, Cardiff
Saturday, 10 July	Hustings, Southampton
Friday, 16 July	Hustings, London & South
Sunday, 18 July	Hustings, Birmingham
Monday, 19 July	Procedures Committee
Tuesday, 20 July	National Executive Committee meeting 5.00pm Deadline for candidates to provide 250 word statement and picture for inclusion in candidate booklet.
Thursday, 22 July	Last day for membership queries (and adjudication by National Constitutional Committee)
Sunday, 25 July	Women’s Hustings, Leeds
Monday, 26 July	12.30pm Close of supporting nominations Deadline for affiliated organisations to certify number of members to be balloted Artwork for ballots and candidate booklets made available to affiliated organisations. Ballots being printing
Saturday, 31 July	Hustings, Manchester
August
Monday, 16 August – 22 September	Ballots and member magazine posted to all members. Balloting begins
September
Wednesday, 8 Sept	12.30pm Freeze date for new members to join Deadline for members in arrears
Wednesday, 15 Sept	5.00pm last day to request replacement ballot
Monday, 20 Sept	Procedures Committee
Tuesday, 21 Sept	5.00pm close of affiliate ballot National Executive Committee
Wednesday, 22 Sept	5.00pm close of members and MP/MEPs ballots
Saturday, 25 Sept	1.00 – 3.00pm Announcement of ballot results

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Sunday News Review

06/06/2010, 08:04:50 AM

The candidates

“The insipid campaign has laid bare the paucity of talent on Labour’s benches, and the party’s ideological exhaustion. No serving Cabinet minister lost their seat at the election; Tony Blair aside, the Milibands and Ed Balls are the best Labour has. That’s a grim prospect if your colour’s red. Ed Balls has the panache of a Vauxhall Safira; and the two Milibands are trapped in a Beckettian whirl of meaningless jargon, convinced that using abstract nouns is a mark of vital intelligence.” – The Spectator

“”They have all grown. I got on very well with Ed during the campaign. But in the end you’ve got to make a judgment. Of all of them, I think David [Miliband] has got the most rounded political and policy skills that you need. I’m a pragmatist about this. I think about who can take on Cameron best.”” – Alistair Campbell, Independent on Sunday

“One rival, Ed Balls, Gordon Brown’s anointed heir, offers a clear contrast as a centraliser in the Fabian tradition, backed by Unite, the giant union. He has one great achievement to his name for which we can all be grateful: he convinced his master that Britain should stay out of the euro.” – The Times

“Labour leadership hopeful Ed Balls says he is the man to take Labour back to Number 10. As the campaign to find Gordon Brown’s successor gains momentum, the former schools secretary said he is the only candidate to hold on to the “New Labour understanding”. – Staffordshire Newsletter

Movement for Miliband

David Miliband says he will reform the Party

“Mr Miliband said: “We are at a very, very important moment. Instead of the leadership being ashamed of the membership the membership feels let down by the leadership, and it’s really important that those of us in a leadership position understand that. A fundamental part of correcting that is to reconnect the leadership with the membership.”” – The News of the World

“They include allowing Labour members to elect the party chairman; launching a “find-a-friend” campaign to double Labour’s membership; training Labour Party members to become community organisers; and maintaining, in opposition, the requirement for the Labour leader to have weekly meetings with a committee of backbench MPs.” – Press Association

Policy pronouncements

“As Labour seeks to rebuild trust with the British people, it is important we are honest about what we got wrong. In retrospect, Britain should not have rejected transitional controls on migration from the first wave of new EU member states in 2004, which we were legally entitled to impose. As the GMB’s Paul Kenny and others have pointed out, the failure of our government to get agreement to implement the agency workers directive made matters worse.” – Ed Balls, The Observer

“In a BBC Politics Show interview later, Mr Balls is also expected to urge more debate about policy in the contest. Mr Balls’ comments could be a sign that dividing lines between candidates was opening up, says the BBC’s Iain Watson. David Miliband, another leadership hopeful, will also be speaking to the BBC to outline his proposed party reforms.” – The BBC

Burnham sprint finish

Andy Burnham hopes to make the cut

“Burnham’s campaign managers said yesterday they believed he would secure enough support to run. In his pitch to MPs tomorrow he will criticise new Labour’s courting of big business, saying it sent out the wrong message to the party’s core supporters. “We were in the thrall of big business. We lost sight of the impact that had on individuals and their circumstances,” he plans to say.” – The Times

“Andy Burnham is set to win enough support to battle for the Labour leadership. Party sources say the ex-Health Secretary will get the required backing of 33 Labour MPs before Wednesday’s deadline to be the fourth and final contender for the top job.” – The Sunday Mirror

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Saturday News Review

05/06/2010, 08:09:59 AM

The candidates

“To read the two Milibands and Mr Balls was like staring with furrowed brow at an apparently fuzzy picture, focusing and refocusing your eyes, trying to snap the image into sharpness until your head aches — and you realise that it isn’t your eyesight: the picture itself is just a blur.” – Matthew Paris, The Times

Tom Watson MP calls on the candidates to "meet some real people"

“All the frontrunners for Labour’s leadership are insipid-looking, clean-shaven boys from the suburbs. I can only get away with saying this because the nation knows we also have a prime minister and deputy prime minister who don’t yet shave. David Cameron and Nick Clegg are mollycoddled middle-class white men whose idea of an early shift is the Today programme radio car interrupting their morning cappuccino.” Tom Watson MP, The Guardian

“The battle for the Labour crown has yet to start in earnest — nominations close next week. Yet there are already widespread fears among MPs and members about its conduct: that a rarified debate about the party’s future is leaving far behind the voters needed to return it to power; that the candidates so far — white, male, 40-something, professional politicians — lack diversity and life experience; and that in trampling over each other to distance themselves from the unpopularity of the last government they risk ditching the good bits of new Labour as well as the bad and the ugly.” – The Times

“LABOUR must return to its left-wing roots if it is to return to power in Westminster, one of the party’s most senior Welsh figures argued yesterday. Counsel General John Griffiths said his party must make it clear it is on a “moral crusade” and wants to redistribute wealth if it is to return to power. The Newport East AM claimed it is a mistake for Labour to hide its socialist ambitions in order to appeal to “Middle England”.” – Western Mail

“Mr Miliband also said Labour had failed during the election campaign to effectively communicate all its achievements over 13 years, which included the minimum wage and huge improvements to public services. Despite serving as foreign secretary under Mr Brown, he says Labour was “too timid” on the role of government in the economy.” – The Coventry Telegraph

Movement for change

Foreign Secretary David Miliband prepares to leave home for his summer holiday on August 2, 2008 in London. Earlier in the week Mr Miliband gave an interview that was seen as a clear challenge to the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

David Miliband promises to double Labour membership

“David Miliband will tomorrow present his blueprint for rebuilding the Labour party, announcing he is to channel a sizable portion of his campaign funds into retraining 1,000 Labour supporters as community organisers over the next three months. Attempting the first complete overhaul of a British political party with the techniques that helped Barack Obama into the White House, Miliband wants to turn the Labour party into a grassroots “movement for change”.” – The Guardian

“David Miliband will today set out plans to double Labour’s membership and give more powers to rank and file activists. The leadership frontrunner will say he wants to end the party’s previous era of “top down command and control”. If elected he will pledge to double the membership from 156,000 to 300,000 and hand members a greater say in the running of the party.” – The Mirror

Nominations

“Pressure is mounting for a relaxation of Labour rules to allow a wider leadership contest than looks likely if the nomination thresholds are retained. Calls are expected to be made for an extension of the nominations deadline when members of the party’s ruling executive meet on Wednesday June 9, the day of the deadline itself.”- Tribune Blog

“Labour MPs have so far refused to heed calls from unions and left-wing pressure groups to help the outsiders gain enough backing. Many of the about 80 MPs yet to declare are from the new intake, making their nominations hard to predict.” – The Independent

“West Yorkshire’s Labour MPs are split over who to back for the party’s leadership contest. Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband has won the support of 47 MPs including two from Leeds – Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) and Rachel Reeves (Leeds West).” – The Yorkshire Evening Post

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Douglas Alexander explains why he chose David Miliband

04/06/2010, 01:28:22 PM

The Labour Party is nothing if it is not a moral crusade. So said Harold Wilson. I agree with that and I would add one caveat. We are little if we cannot turn our values into victories in Government – at a local and national level – for those we seek to represent.

I believe that David Miliband has good Labour values, can unite our party, and can lead us back to power at the next election. That is why I will be voting for him to be our next leader.

In our thirteen years in government, and before, I had the privilege of working closely with Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. I saw what it took to make the party electable again, to deliver that victory in 1997 and saw the strength needed to change this country in government. I believe that David can lead a united team to do that again. (more…)

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Alistair Darling’s letter in support of David Miliband

01/06/2010, 10:13:56 PM

Alistair Darling released the following letter to his constituency party at 10pm on 1 June 2010.

Andrew Burns
Labour Party offices
78 Buccleuch Street
Edinburgh

Dear Andrew,

I am writing to let you know I will be nominating David Miliband as the next Leader of the Labour Party, and to explain my reasons for doing so. This is a crucial moment for our party so I wanted to write to you myself to set out my thinking.

We are fortunate to have a field of very strong candidates, each with different qualities. However, I believe strongly that David Miliband is the right person to lead our party, first in Opposition and then back to power. He has the right Labour values, with a deep commitment to equality. He has the ability to inspire the party with a compelling vision for the future, returning to our roots as a social movement for change. He has the maturity and humility to bring together different talents irrespective of whether they supported him in the leadership contest. He will re-engage Labour with the public, particularly those with whom we have lost touch. David has always campaigned and argued positively for the Labour Party and that is the kind of leadership we need. (more…)

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Darling likely to endorse David Miliband this evening.

01/06/2010, 05:30:45 PM

Uncut hears convincing reports that the Shadow Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is likely to endorse David Miliband’s bid for the Labour leadership later this evening.

An increasingly pivotal figure in the previous regime, Darling’s support will be seen as significant.

Other members of the defeated Labour cabinet backing David Miliband include Alan Johnson, Douglas Alexander, Ben Bradshaw, Bob Ainsworth and Jim Murphy.

Ed Miliband is backed by Hilary Benn, John Denham and Peter Hain; while Ed Balls is supported by his wife, Yvette Cooper.

Still to declare are Gordon Brown, Nick Brown, Liam Byrne, Jack Straw and Shaun Woodward.

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Monday News Review

31/05/2010, 07:45:59 AM

The candidates

Diane Abbott makes pitch to Sun readers

“”They all look, sound and think the same. I want to ask the difficult questions. The sort of questions Sun readers want asked.” But she faces a battle to win enough nominations to get her name on the leadership ballot.” – Diane Abbott, The Sun

“All that the contenders have to offer are their political skills, they are all creatures of New Labour. That makes them likable, good communicators and very clever; but the drawbacks are equally evident. They are all youngish men who have grown up inside the distortions of the adrenaline-fuelled life of government.” – The Guardian

“Ed Miliband said that he and David never fought during childhood because “we are both too weedy for that”. He said that he chose to stand for election so party members had a diverse choice. “The one thing about opposition is that it gives you the chance to renew,” he said. “It was an incredibly hard decision for me to decide to run against my brother. It’s unusual, to put it mildly.”” – The Telegraph

Scotland & Wales make play for NEC seat

Iain Gray calls for NEC seats for Scotland & Wales

“Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray has said he wants greater influence in the UK party, after calling for a place on its ruling body. Mr Gray told BBC Scotland the time had come to give Labour’s Holyrood leader a seat on the national executive committee to “bind” the party together.” – The BBC

“LABOUR’S Scottish and Welsh leaders should have a say on how the party is governed by gaining a seat on its National Executive Committee, according to Iain Gray. The Scottish Labour leader said he had urged the party leadership challengers to allow him and Welsh leader Carwyn Jones to join the body that formulates policy” – The Scotsman

“Labour’s Scottish and Welsh leaders should have a say on how the party is governed, Iain Gray said. The Scottish Labour leader revealed that he has urged the leadership contenders to give him a seat on the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).” – Press Association

Uniting the Union

“Mr Simpson and Mr Woodley are due to retire, and will be replaced by one general secretary, who will have a major influence on the Labour Party, of which Unite is the biggest financial backer. The odds are not in Ms Cartmail’s favour, because within each of the two unions that made up Unite there was an efficient vote-garnering machine.” – The Independent

“A moment of truth is approaching for Thigmoo – “this great movement of ours”, aka the UK’s once mighty trade unions, now facing their biggest test for 30 years as the Con-Lib coalition prepares public spending cuts that could threaten at least 500,000 jobs.” – The FT

Brown down

“Gordon Brown has “good days and bad days” but is coming to terms with losing power, ex-Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell said yesterday. Mr Campbell told the BBC the former Prime Minister was “reconciled to the fact that he didn’t win the election”.” – The Mirror

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Friday News Review

28/05/2010, 08:36:58 AM

Policy posturing

“There was nothing in this week’s Queen’s Speech for hard-working families – except a kick in the teeth if you are young and unemployed or an aspiring student or receiving home help.” – David Miliband, The Mirror

“Bosses earning huge amounts while their employees struggle were branded “immoral” by Labour leadership contender David Miliband last night.” – The Mirror

“Ed Miliband will seek today to stand out from the field of Labour leadership candidates with a campaign for a “living wage”. He will call for Britain’s five million lowest-paid workers to receive at least £7.14 an hour, instead of the current £5.83 minimum wage.” – The Times

“The result is that our conversation with the public broke down. We need to restart it with our most precious asset – our idealism for a better future.” – David Miliband, Tribune

“Ed Miliband will throw his weight behind demands for a “living wage” of more than £7 an hour as he seeks to bolster his bid for the Labour leadership.” – Channel 4 News (more…)

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The Ed Balls interview

27/05/2010, 12:07:36 PM

Labour Uncut interviewed Ed Balls on Tuesday evening. We couldn’t ask all the questions you submitted. There were far too many. We gave Ed the option of whether or not to answer questions – in this Labour leadership interview – from people who clearly weren’t Labour members or supporters. He chose to answer, and we’ve included several.

Ed’s is the first of our leadership candidate interviews. We were impressed by his focus and presence. It will be great if the rest are as good.

Q. (From Alex R) When the leadership candidates say that they were guilty of ‘not listening’ enough in the last government, how and why were you not listening? What steps would you take to listen sufficiently if you had another opportunity?

A. I think our problems about not listening started much earlier than the last Parliament. I think one of the great frustrations that we had in the election campaign, and in my case the year before, was that many of the things people were upset about, like public housing, the impact of unskilled immigration on terms and conditions, the obstacle of upfront tuition fees for young people going to university – these were issues we’d actually addressed. We’d put in place controls on immigration; John Healy was leading a big expansion on public housing; we’d got rid of upfront tuition fees. But the public weren’t hearing at that time what we were saying and it takes time for policy decisions to feed through to the reality of peoples lives.

I think the truth is that the time when we weren’t listening enough was probably during the second term in Government. My election campaign for the last 18 months has been all about repeated public meetings, listening to people and their issues – and lots of other MPs who were successful in their campaigns did the same thing in this last couple of years. If we’d been doing that five years earlier we’d have made different and better policy decisions at an earlier stage.

So your politics can’t be about telling communities what you’ve concluded; it’s got to be about asking them, listening to the voices of people who need us on their side and responding. That’s what I mean by listening. (more…)

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INSIDE the leadership campaigns: website, text, office, er.. action

26/05/2010, 02:29:53 PM

The unifying theme of all the leadership campaigns remains as we reported it last week: shambles.

Front runner David Miliband’s organisation is the nearest to being slick. But it is not very near.

At the whizzy end of things, he is the only one with a broadcast text message system, which alerts targeted Labour MPs to forthcoming Miliband encounter opportunities. It tells them where he will be, when, and with what voter segment (Northerners, trades unionists, women etc).

This is a canny Pavlovian ruse by Team David: MPs are already accustomed to receive hourly instructions – from the whips – by this means. The whips’ messages show up as sent by ‘Rapide’. The young dauphin’s come through from ‘D_M’. You cannot reply. (more…)

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