As one might expect, Labour MPs are being telephone stalked by leadership candidates. The harassment takes different, if equally unsurprising forms: big Miliband is imperiously brusque; little Miliband is meanderingly genial; big Ed is focused; Andy is apologetic.
Calls can come at any time of the day or night. They have everybody’s numbers. (David Miliband, whose election campaign was more of a leadership election campaign, asked party regional offices for the phone number of every PPC whose patch he drove through during the campaign, “so that he could call to wish them luck”). If you don’t reply they just keep calling. Nobody is safe.
All four are phoning, and determinedly, but in a targeted way. We have yet to meet an MP who has been hounded by all four. A modest prize awaits the Labour Member who can – honestly – claim a full house.