Labour leadership: The gloves are off
By Ian Dunt
The Miliband brothers have broken their truce and entered into a tough war of words over the future of Labour.
After a summer in which the siblings abided by their commitment to not launch personal attacks on each other, relations between the two men appeared to break down today with David Miliband attacking his younger brother for his “naive” politics.
The comments, which were made during a speech in London this evening, prompted a furious retaliation from Ed Miliband, who said his elder brother’s approach would “consign us to opposition”.
The spat, arguably the most colourful chapter in an otherwise drab and underwhelming leadership contest, will cement the impression that the Miliband brothers represent two political wings of the Labour party – New and Bennite Labour – even if both men emphatically reject those designations.
David Miliband’s speech used barely coded language to object to his brother’s concentration on attracting disillusioned Liberal Democrat voters, saying Labour cannot win an election if it deserts the centre ground and moves to the left.
“The decision of the Lib Dems to join a Conservative government creates a big opportunity for the Labour party to realign the centre-left of British politics. But that’s not enough. I see the primary task for Labour as shifting the centre ground of British politics,” the shadow foreign secretary will say.
“There is no future for Labour in the comfortable but deadening policies of the past. And there is no future in a politics based on a tactical, patchwork approach to building electoral support.
“Opposition is necessary but insufficient. At worse it can take us back into our comfort zone – and our pantomime role in politics.”
The comments come a day after Ed Miliband tried to tempt Liberal Democrat voters to Labour by promising a defence of the welfare state, a commitment to civil liberties and an ethical foreign policy.
An article in the Times today saw David Miliband address his brother’s political agenda in even more scathing tones, saying Labour’s comfort zone is “big in heart but essentially naive, well-meaning but behind the times”.
The speech, which was pitched as the most important of David Miliband’s leadership campaign, comes as he enjoys a boost in support from MPs, with 100 now signed up to back him becoming leader.
But it also appears to have convinced his younger brother to abandon his policy of not attacking his sibling. Ed Miliband issued a furious riposte this afternoon insisting that it was New Labour’s centrist politics which had become the real comfort zone.
“There is clearly an honest disagreement about the future of the Labour party and different views about the scale of change needed to take Labour back to power,” Ed Miliband said.
“I will keep campaigning on my message that Labour must change to win, and that change must be real and fundamental. Remaining in the New Labour comfort zone would consign us to opposition.”
The shadow energy and climate change secretary defended his decision to encourage Lib Dem voters to join Labour.
“We need to change in order to attract all of these lost voters back to Labour, and that includes the 1.6 million voters we lost to the Liberal Democrats, and it also means attracting back the three million working families whose votes we lost, as well as the more affluent voters,” he said.
“To do that, we have to change. We have to change on the economy, on civil liberties and ID cards, and on tuition fees.”
During the Blair/Brown period, David Miliband was associated with the former while Ed Miliband was backed by allies of the latter. The leadership contest has seen the two men monopolise the roles of centrist and left-winger respectively, but maintain a polite and friendly tone towards one another.
Today’s developments make the continuation of that policy much less likely, as an attacking tone replaces the moderation of previous exchanges.
David Miliband may have been prompted into his move by a gradual sense that his brother is taking the lead in what has become a two-horse race.
Labour leaders are selected on the basis of three voting blocks: MPs, unions and members. Ed Miliband has secured the support of the three main unions and is thought to have that block wrapped up.
David Miliband has stronger support in the parliamentary party. The MPs who joined him yesterday provided something of a coup, with Kevan Jones and Tom Clarke both coming from the Brownite wing of the party.
There were signs the argument had turned against Ed Miliband today, with left-wing figurehead Jon Cruddas criticising his attacks on the Lib Dem leadership.
Mr Cruddas, who threw his weight behind David Miliband despite being politically well to the left of him, suggested the shadow energy secretary had failed to grasp a fundamental alteration in British politics.
“I think it’s definitely a mistake to attack the Liberals,” he told the New Statesman.
“We should have a much more subtle approach to this, because what we’re seeing is the first major political realignment following the economic crisis. The question is: what is the equivalent centre-left response to this moment of rupture?
“Attacking the Liberals is wrong. There’s a danger of us spraying too much lead across the forecourt and not really thinking about how we need to regroup,” he continued.
“We need to have respect for and show courtesy towards different traditions as part of an overall, plural realignment across the centre and the left – that’s what’s going to be needed.”
Ironically, Ed Miliband’s campaign recieved a boost when it won the support of the same magazine Mr Cruddas was using to criticise him – the New Statesman.
The new Labour leader will be selected just before the party’s autumn conference in Manchester next month.
