Cruddas backs David Miliband for middle Britain

The rumours were true: Jon Cruddas has backed David Miliband. It’s an unlikely union on the face of it – an ambitious centrist and an almost utopian socialist. Though Cruddas once forged a partnership with the equally centrist James Purnell, so it is no great surprise that he is a pluralist. Cruddas tells the New Statesman that in ‘terms of the nature of the leadership that’s needed, he’s beginning to touch on some of those more profound questions that need to be addressed head-on.’

Is Cruddas right? Miliband has delivered the speech that he thinks will define his campaign. To be brutally honest, it was not profound. There was little other the usual Milibandian quota of abstractions and specious waffle. A favourite extract is:

‘To defeat this government, to renew our party, and to revive our country. That is the purpose of my candidacy for the leadership of our party.