By Paul Goodman It should go roughly like this – "Conference, my election as this Party's leader was the greatest moment of my political life. But we have to face the facts – namely, that two out of three parts of our electoral college voted for someone else. And not just any old two parts. […]
By Tim Montgomerie CCHQ have had a good few days. The machine has purred over the last 72 hours as it sought to win the early and vital battle to define Ed Miliband in the public mind. Publicly there was Matt Hancock's identification of a £67bn black hole in Ed Miliband's economic plans. Once he […]
While David Cameron was Mr Statesman, congratulating Ed Miliband on his victory, Sayeeda Warsi fronted the first Tory critique of the new Labour leader yesterday. Today, the second round of the Tory attack was fronted by Michael Fallon MP. My headline to this blog doesn't capture the measured way the new Deputy Tory Chairman – […]
By Tim Montgomerie Last night ConHome published Lord Ashcroft's warning that the Labour movement could be a significant drag on Ed Miliband's chances of becoming Prime Minister. Using polling and focus groups Lord Ashcroft (the co-owner of this website) noted that there was a big gap between Labour activists and swing voters on (1) the […]
By Tim Montgomerie I'm grateful to the Observer for highlighting this envelope that the GMB used to send its members ballot papers for the Labour leadership election: Labour rules forbid the inclusion of a candidate's literature being put inside an envelope containing ballot papers. What the GMB appears to have done is send their members […]
by Paul Goodman If there was a better result for CCHQ in its dreams, I don't know what it could have been. This is a woeful result for Labour, for two – no, let's say twin – reasons. First, because Cain's slain Abel by the narrowest of margins. Second, because the trade unions backed the […]
By Tim Montgomerie During the Labour leadership race the Tories kept their guns quiet but, as I blogged before, they were watching closely: "A senior campaigner at CCHQ was telling me that all of the Labour leadership candidates have significant weaknesses that he is looking forward to probing. The initial plan is to contrast Cameron […]
By Tim Montgomerie A poll by YouGov for The Sunday Times (£) produces the surprise result that Ed Miliband might be nosing ahead of his older brother in the race to be Labour leader. Once second preference votes are taken into account Ed beats David Miliband by 51% to 49%. The Shadow Energy and Climate […]
By Paul Goodman When I heard Tony Blair make the following remark in his Marr interview, I felt as though a glass of cold water had been thrown over my face – "It is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons. I think we've got to be prepared to confront them … if necessarily, […]
By Paul Goodman There've been very many Labour leadership debates over this long summer. Few have followed them in detail. This evening's one, hosted by Channel 4, may have been different: after all, Labour members' ballot papers are currently arriving in the post. I watched it with three questions in mind. What was each candidate […]
By Tim Montgomerie The future of universal benefits may become one of the defining battles of this Parliament. I haven't established David Miliband's position on the future of the £53bn of welfare payments that go to all people, regardless of income, but I should imagine that it will be similar to the one set out […]
By Tim Montgomerie They do not use the expression ‘Red Ed’ – that was Fraser Nelson yesterday – but Blair’s inner circle have come together to help the cause of David Miliband, who was Blair’s long-term policy chief – and injure Ed Miliband’s chances. In an interview with this morning’s Times (£) Lord Mandelson warns […]
In his News of the World column Fraser Nelson christens the wannabe Labour leader as Red Ed: "Ed Miliband wants to take Labour to the left, and back to the comfort zone of the hardcore remain members after 13 years. So he’s become ‘Red Ed’, embracing every lefty cause going. Even pretending that he was […]
By Jonathan Isaby The splash on this morning's Times (£) carries the stark headline "Put our man in or we cut off funding, union warns". The paper has been speaking to GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny – a vocal supporter of Ed Miliband, whose union has also made a contribution to the shadow energy and […]
By Tim Montgomerie It appears to be 'Get Clegg Day' in the grid of Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. With more evidence yesterday that brother David has the edge in the leadership race, the man who wrote the manifesto for Gordon Brown's 2010 campaign has blasted the Liberal Democrat leader in an open letter to LibDem […]