This morning we published the latest in our series of crowdsourced interviews with the Labour leadership candidates. This time it was Ed Miliband’s turn to face your questions.
You can read the Ed Miliband interview here, and in case you missed them, here are our earlier interviews with Diane Abbott, Ed Balls and David Miliband.
Andy Burnham is still to face the Uncut crowdsourcing hotseat, and we will be asking for your questions soon.
This morning we published the latest in our series of crowdsourced interviews with the Labour leadership candidates. This time it was David Miliband’s turn to be interviewed.
You can read the David Miliband interview here, and in case you missed them here are our earlier interviews with Diane Abbott and Ed Balls. Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham are still to face the Uncut crowdsourcing hotseat.
Gove faces grilling
Michael Gove faces the Commons for education questions today
Ed Balls piled fresh pressure on Michael Gove, the beleaguered education secretary, by calling on him on Sunday night to answer questions over the withdrawal of funding from the schools construction programme. Mr Balls, shadow education secretary, wrote to Mr Gove demanding to know what advice he had from officials over the need to consult on last week’s decision and whether it had left the government open to legal claims. – The FT
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Simon Hughes, today distanced his party from education secretary Michael Gove over the contentious decision to cancel 700 school rebuilding projects. Hughes said he was not entirely comfortable with the handling of the announcement, adding it would be “a nonsense” to build the new free schools proposed by Gove using cash that could have improved existing buildings. Gove has agreed to meet Lib Dem councillors concerned by his announcement, and the issue is likely to be raised at a Liberal Democrat meeting of its MPs organised by Nick Clegg, the party’s leader and the coalition deputy prime minister. – The Guardian
Uncut is completely neutral in the leadership election. We have occasionally been accused of being closet Balls backers. This is wrong. We are not.
But we have consistently argued for a leadership campaign in which the candidates actually demonstrate some leadership, rather than just pontificate about it.
This means taking the fight to the Tories. Getting on with the war of attrition that is opposition.
Perhaps the reason some have badged us Ballsites is that he has been overwhelmingly the best of the candidates at this.
The letter below is not just a blistering, forensic attack on Michael Gove’s handling of the building schools for the future farrago, it is yet another such attack. (more…)
Show me the money
David Miliband has raised more in donations than any of the other candidates
Since launching his bid to replace Gordon Brown in May, accounts issued by the Electoral Commission show that the shadow foreign secretary has raised nearly £200,000 from major donors alone. He has also drawn in 94 smaller gifts of less than £1,500, which do not have to be declared. In contrast, Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary and his nearest rival, has raked in less than £30,000, and Mr Miliband’s younger brother Ed, the shadow energy secretary, has only £15,000. – The Telegraph
Black Country MP John Spellar has offered a donation of £13,000 to Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls’s campaign – but he doesn’t expect ever to pay it. Mr Spellar is listed as a donor in a new register published by the Electoral Commission which shows how much the candidates have received. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in the lead in the cash stakes, with £185,265 in financial support from major backers. – The Birmingham Post
David Miliband brandished his political fundraising abilities today as it emerged he had attracted far more in donations to his Labour leadership bid than any of his rivals. The shadow foreign secretary has so far racked up £185,265 in financial support from major backers, according to the Electoral Commission. That is apart from 94 other donations of less than £1,500 which do not need to be declared and two cash gifts from the Usdaw and Community unions which will be listed in future months. – The Guardian
Work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, is a weak link in the Tory cabinet (for that is what it is). He is neither as clever as he thinks he is, nor as clever as he needs to be. Both of which he is too stupid to realise. He is a series of accidents which are starting to happen. (more…)
For millions of families, this is the budget from hell. The combination of a sharp and unfair rise in VAT, the callous freezing of child benefit and the deepest cuts our public services have ever seen will be a hammer-blow to lower and middle income families.
Not only is this an unemployment budget which will see the jobless total rise by 100,000 a year, but George Osborne has also raised the only tax – VAT – that all the unemployed pay – and pensioners too. (more…)
I joined the Labour party when I was 15. Tony Blair had just won his famous landslide victory. I was impressed by his charisma and the effect his campaign had on the national mood. And Labour was part of my community, part of my childhood experience. I’ve always known how central politics is to people’s lives. And it’s important who the party leader is. It was important to me that Tony Blair was the leader back in 1997.
And I think it really matters who the new leader is now. That’s why I wanted to write this article to explain why I am supporting Ed Balls. One of the main reasons I am backing him is because of his economic strength and experience. I feel that his unparalleled economic experience and knowledge can help us be a strong opposition at a time when economics are at the very centre of our battle with the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition. While they are making swinging cuts all around, I believe he has not only the knowledge but the strength of character to resist.
Ed B begins courtship
Ed Balls makes his pitch to the grassroots
“Ed Balls is launching a drive to get more ethnic minority candidates into Labour politics, pledging that as party leader he would devote a proportion of party funds towards boosting their number. The leadership contender plans to set up a Labour party diversity fund to enable candidates from groups currently under-represented to stand for elected office.” – The Guardian
Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls has pitched to the grassroots of his party, calling for greater involvement from members and trade unions. Shadow education secretary Mr Balls said Labour needed to do more to support people from under-represented groups to stand “at every level”. – The Belfast Telegraph
“We must seize the chance of this leadership election to renew the Labour Party from the ground up and re-engage with the communities we are elected to serve. Political aims, vision and policies aren’t enough unless Labour can also be a community-based political party rooted in the communities we represent.” – Ed Balls, Labour Values
McDonnell wins
“John McDonnell has promised to bring in a new trade union freedom bill to tackle British Airways-style legal threats to strike action after winning first place in the parliamentary ballot of private members’ bills. The veteran leftwinger, who dropped out of Labour’s leadership contest last week, is seeking support from the TUC’s general council for the bill, which will have top priority among backbench legislative proposals this autumn. Mr McDonnell’s last bill on the subject was talked out under Government opposition in 2008. Mr McDonnell said employers such as BA had been exploiting “minor technicalities” to “frustrate the democratic decisions of trade unionists”.” – Tribune
Not just the candidates, but their children
“The question had related to the lack of women in the upper echelons of the Labour Party and glanced towards Yvette Cooper’s decision not to 
stand against her husband, Ed Balls. But the discussion soon turned – how could it not? – to the difficulty of combining a senior role in politics with babies. It was as though the playpen gate had been thrown open. The four men positively fell over each other to vaunt their infatuation with their offspring.” – The Independent
“Other critics – many within the Labour’s own ranks – believe the situation is evidence that the party has failed to foster a belief amongst its female MPs that promotion to the highest offices is a realistic prospect, and also that the party remains stifled by an anachronistic culture of paternalism.” – Political Promise
“Under the Tories, the poorest will end up paying the price of the mistakes of the richest. We should not be afraid of the mansion tax on £2m houses or extending the bankers’ bonus tax, rather than charging the poorest with VAT rises. And the idea of taking money from the poorest children while continuing to subsidise private schools is just wrong”. – The Guardian
“I believe it would be economic madness for Osborne to go ahead with deflationary spending cuts and the VAT hike that his advisers have been whispering about to the newspapers. I fear this “unemployment budget” will set back the economic recovery and put jobs at risk.” – The Guardian
Has the race left London?
“I’d make a break with the London- centric nature of our politics. I regret to say our party has run itself in too top-down a way from London.” – Western Mail
“Ed Balls finally launched his campaign website today in his email to the 80,000-strong Labour Party email list. Every candidate is entitled to send one email to the party’s list. David Miliband sent his first, last Wednesday, followed by Ed Miliband on Thursday and Andy Burnham last Friday.” – Labour List
