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Monday News Review

26/07/2010, 07:35:41 AM

Ed Balls: I’m a fighter

Ed Balls: Fighting to the end

Ed Balls confirmed today that he was “fighting to win” the Labour leadership contest, as his campaign suffered a major blow when he failed to secure the backing of the Unite union. The decision by the political committee of Unite to back Ed Miliband means the shadow climate change secretary enters the summer recess with the backing of Britain’s three largest trade unions. Unison and the GMB have also endorsed Miliband. – The Guardian

Ed Balls has rejected speculation that he is considering quitting the Labour leadership contest. The shadow education secretary told the BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend he was “fighting to the end and I’m fighting to win”. Speculation about his leadership bid came after he failed to win the backing of the Unite union, which gave its endorsement to Ed Miliband. – The BBC

The former schools secretary was forced to re-state his commitment to the contest after reports suggested he was stepping aside in the wake of his failure to secure the backing of Unite union. Mr Balls was overlooked by the union in favour of Ed Miliband, who has now secured the endorsement of three out of the four major UK trade unions after Unison and the GMB also pledged their support. Mr Balls was believed to be considering his candidacy, but came out fighting to deny the reports. – The Scotsman

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Sunday News Review

25/07/2010, 09:06:39 AM

Balls out?

There are Westminster rumours that Ed Balls may be considering dropping out of leadership contest

The Unite union’s national policy committee overwhelmingly opted for Ed Miliband in a significant boost for the former climate change secretary’s campaign. Mr Balls had hoped to win Unite’s backing – but only secured four votes compared to Ed Miliband’s 24. The decision left him contemplating withdrawing from the fray and backing either Ed Miliband or his brother David, the former foreign secretary, who remains the bookies’ favourite. Both Miliband brothers were attempting to persuade Mr Balls, who has won Labour plaudits for his recent attacks on the decision by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, to abandon plans to rebuild schools, to quit and support them. – The Telegraph

The main piece of hard information we have is that Balls will start well behind both Milibands in the Parliamentary third of the electoral college on the first round. Most, though not all, MPs first preferences are public. Left Foot Forward have estimated that Balls trails with 13.4% of this section behind David (38.9%) and Ed Miliband (27.9%). A winning Balls strategy would surely need to offet that deficit by topping the affiliated section, and doing so with a commanding double digit lead over at least one and preferably both Milibands there. – Next Left

More than 100 council leaders and Labour group leaders will today publish a letter backing Mr Miliband. A third of the votes in the Labour Party election will come from grassroots members. Last week bookies cut the odds on David’s closest rival – his brother Ed – after he received the support of most of Britain’s major trade unions. And yesterday Ed was backed by the Unite, in a severe blow to leadership contender Ed Balls, who had close ties with the union. But the turnout in the leadership ballot will be far lower among trade unionists than grassroots party members. – News of the World

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Saturday News Review

24/07/2010, 09:42:49 AM

Cash money

David Miliband has raised more in donations than any of the other candidates

David Miliband, the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, has raised at least £200,000, his campaign has revealed, as the disparity in financial backing for the five candidates emerges as a big issue. Two wealthy donors have each given him £50,000, sparking accusations within the party that the former foreign secretary is deploying far more staff than his rivals and is in danger of “buying the election” with “Blairite” support. – The Guardian

Apathy

More than 2 million people have a vote in the Labour leadership election, which will trudge on through the summer to a crescendo on 25 September. But how many will avail themselves of the chance to vote must be a cause for concern. The Society of Labour Lawyers has completed a ballot of its 598 members to decide which candidates would receive the society’s formal backing. Labour lawyers, you might think, would be among the more motivated sections of the electorate, yet turn out in this ballot was a dismal eight per cent. In other word, 48 out of 598 bothered to vote. The result was Ed Miliband 18, David Miliband 17, Diane Abbott 8, Andy Burnham 9, and Ed Balls nil. If that reflects the level of enthusiasm, it is not going to be a resounding mandate. – The Independent

The contest has raised barely an eyebrow of public interest, though whoever wins may find low expectations a blessing. There is nowhere to go but up, as opinion polls offer cold comfort. Guardian readers should not be deceived by our daily reasoned critiques of profoundly misguided government policies. The coalition may be about to crash the economy, shipwreck the NHS and splinter the education system but the public does not agree, as yet. The coalition’s honeymoon may last a while. – The Guardian

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Friday News Review

23/07/2010, 08:30:10 AM

Leadership Contest

“I am an economic realist. The public finances need addressing. Labour’s plans would halve the budget deficit and remove the bulk of the structural deficit in four years. It is the sensible, credible middle-ground between extreme cuts and unchecked spending. But the government’s proposals, designed without an escape hatch in the event of slowing growth, reflect ideology, not realism” – David Miliband, Financial Times.

Ed, the younger of the two Miliband brothers, has been heavily supported with Coral bookmakers in the last two days to be the next Labour Leader, and has been slashed in price to 13-8 (from 9-4). David is still the odds-on favourite at 1-2. – Live Odds and Scores.

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Thursday News Review

22/07/2010, 07:30:42 AM

Unison backs Ed M

Unison has declared it's support for Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband has won the backing of Britain’s second biggest union, Unison, in his campaign to become the next leader of the Labour Party. Yesterday’s decision suggests that the younger of the Miliband brothers is emerging as the favourite candidate of trade activists, which will boost his vote but will be used against him by the Tories if he wins. – The Independent

Ed Miliband’s odds were cut by three bookmakers, with Ladbrokes trimming him to 2/1 from 9/4, Paddy Power 7/4 from 9/4, and William Hill from 2/1 to 13/8. He is also backed by the GMB union, while his brother has the support of two unions – Community and Usdaw. – The Telegraph

The leadership contest is now seen as a two-horse race between Mr Miliband and his brother David, who remains ahead on nominations from MPs and constituency Labour parties. Ed Miliband’s supporters claimed that the backing of Unison, the country’s largest public sector union, now puts their candidate in “pole position”. – The Mirror

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Wednesday News Review

21/07/2010, 08:00:58 AM

A bit of brotherly love from both Milibands at hustings

The Leadership

“It’s easy for me – it’s not on all issues that blood is thicker than water, but I only have one brother standing,” said David Miliband. “I nominated Diane but I fear I would disappoint her (when the votes are cast).” His brother Ed responded: “I would nominate David – I think his qualities speak for themselves but obviously he would be a fantastic leader.” Diane Abbott summed up: “You can see their mum has got them in line on this. Canary Wharf hustings – Docklands 24.

Normally in a Labour leadership election people like us either profess disinterest (or, possibly, even uninterest), or make jokes about intrusions into private grief. I think it would be unwise to be so flippant. I have never set foot in a bookmaker’s in my life, but were I that sort of person, I would be seeing what odds I could get on Ed Miliband’s being prime minister this time next year. Oh, I know he’s the less famous one, and it has been decreed that the Coalition is going to last five years: but stranger things have happened. Therefore, we might take notice of what the Labour Party, in what the media represent as being a quiet period in its fortunes, is up to. – The Telegraph.

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Tuesday News Review

20/07/2010, 07:32:12 AM

Miliband: beating contenders

Leadership Candidate Visibility

‘Despite his rivals efforts to make inroads – particularly Ed Balls who seems to be constantly popping up on tv and radio – David Miliband’s support is rock solid and there is no serious money being invested on any of his fellow contenders’ –William Hill

Many of those who do may have listened to Mr Balls’s speech and been enchanted by it. It may certainly have appealed to their lower instincts. It may have tickled their viscera. And for this reason we can conclude that Mr Balls had a good day, awful though he may have been. The simple fact was that he was on his hind hooves, bulging his eyes in parliamentary prime time while none of his leadership opponents was to be seen or heard. – Daily Mail.

Miliband in Scotland

Labour will never form another UK Government unless it revives in southern England. The stark assessment comes from David Miliband as the Labour leadership contender tries to get to grips with the public’s rejection of New Labour, now consigned to the history books and to be replaced by what some have dubbed, somewhat unimaginatively, Next Labour, which Miliband says can be relaunched from Scotland. –Herald Scotland.

Labour leadership contender David Miliband has condemned the decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing as clearly wrong. His comments in an exclusive interview in The Herald today represent a dramatic change in his previous position on Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’s release on medical grounds. – Herald Scotland.

Ed Miliband: finding a voice on Big Society

Big Society

Labour was today quick to dismiss the prime minister’s pledge to deliver the “most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street”. This is what Ed Miliband told Radio 4: “This is essentially a 19th century or US-style view of our welfare state which is cut back the welfare state and somehow civic society will thrive.” – The Guardian on Big Society.

Graduate Tax

Vince Cable, and according to Cable, the prime minister and the chancellor; the universities minister, David Willetts; the NUS and all Labour leadership contenders except David Miliband. –The Guardian on Graduate Tax Supporters.
In a letter to the climate secretary Chris Huhne, former climate secretary Ed Miliband called on the government to to stand up against “free-market zealots” and restore funding for green industries. “After helping to lead the debate in changing the balance of our economy in a more sustainable direction, you are now turning your back on green industry and risk undermining the UK’s growing reputation around the world for leadership in this field,” he wrote. “You claimed to be the ‘greenest government ever’ but so far you are turning your back on green jobs and green industry.” – The Guardian.

Abbott

Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott has called on the Government to continue its aid efforts for Haiti. Ms Abbott tabled an Early Day Motion and requested a meeting with ministers to discuss how further help could be given to the tiny nation on the six month anniversary of the tragedy. – Hackney Gazette.

The idea of Stella and her husband, magazine publisher Alasdhair Willis, doing a Diane Abbott in reverse – dragging their children out of public schools to send them to the local state-education establishments to give them a better chance in life – is laughable. Jan Moir on Stella McCartney – Daily Mail.

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Monday News Review

19/07/2010, 07:35:54 AM

Time for a chair?

John Cruddas wants to be chair of the Labour Party

Jon Cruddas, who has announced he would like to run as chairman of the Labour Party, admitted he found the politicians’ attempt to distance themselves from the Gordon Brown’s administration “unedifying”. He told Sky News’ Adam Boulton he was concerned by the “velocity by which people are running from their own involvement in some of the decisions” saying he would respect them more for standing by the choices they had made. – Sky News

Left-wing Labour MP Jon Cruddas has called for the party to have an elected chairman in future. Mr Cruddas told Sky News that he and stand-in leader Harriet Harman both backed the change, and that he would be interested in running for the job. It was time for the party to hold a thorough debate on policy following its “second-worst defeat since 1931” at the recent general election, he said. – The BBC

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Sunday News Review

18/07/2010, 07:56:14 AM

Have you seen this man?

Where’s Gordon?

Some ex-prime ministers take years to get over being ejected; some never come to terms with the withdrawal of power. I don’t blame him for holing up in Kirkaldy and trying to bury his anguish by sitting at his keyboard thumping out a tome on the financial crisis. But I do criticise his colleagues for continuing to flinch from confronting the truth about him. – Rawnsley on Brown, The Guardian.

Since Labour left office their successors have finally been able to go through the books. And they make for uncomfortable reading. Of course it is difficult to fathom the labyrinthine bureaucracy that under-pins the NHS. But it would be hard to imagine any private business accepting without question a supplier increasing the price of a product by almost 1,000 per cent over two years. –Daily Mail.

Leadership news

The widow of John Smith, the former Labour leader who died of a heart attack in 1994, has thrown her backing behind Ed Miliband in the party’s leadership battle. Baroness Elizabeth Smith said she was sure that her husband would have done the same thing if he had been alive. “I am backing Ed Miliband because I identify with Ed’s values and principles, and I know that John would have done so too. Ed is also the candidate who I know has the ability to unify the party going forward,” she said. – The Guardian.

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Saturday News Review

17/07/2010, 09:51:43 AM

The great survivor

Leadership candidates call on Mandelson to exit stage left

In interviews with The Times, the candidates – David Miliband, his brother Ed and Andy Burnham – suggested it is time for the peer to leave the political stage. David Miliband, former foreign secretary, said Lord Mandelson’s book The Third Man is “destructive and self-destructive” and should have come “after retirement, not before…”. Ed Miliband, the former climate change secretary, said the peer is “his own worst spin doctor” and had “offended just about everyone”. He said: “I think this is sad and damaging to Peter, not just to the Labour Party”, adding: “It’s time for a new generation.” Mr Burnham, who was health secretary in the last Labour government, said: “Peter loves the spotlight but it’s time to leave the stage.” – Press Association.

Mr Campbell, victim of a coded kicking in the book, had counterstruck this very day, in this very newspaper, by calling Mandelson a liar, or manager, over an arcane point regarding the Lib-Lab coalition talks he attended. But then he’s one of so many, Mr Blair in the vanguard, to have put the boot in. Having so little experience of internecine strife, this must all be terribly painful for you. “It’s not the end of my world,” says the Gloria Gaynor of British politics laconically, as his taxi draws to its halt. “I will survive.” – The Telegraph.

Balls acknowledged that both men in their different ways are in fact tribal Labour and powerfully described a “commonality” between the two. “Putting that big issue aside, Peter was Labour and I was Labour, we wanted the government to succeed, we wanted to win the election, Peter and I were always the people who, at key moments, were willing to go out and defend the government. I was never part of any plotting and I don’t think anyone suggests Peter particularly was. We were both, as we saw it, trying to do the right thing and doing the right thing meant coming together. We were more effective than we would have been opposing each other; just not effective enough sadly.” – The New Statesman.

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