The good thing for Labour about Ed Miliband’s speech yesterday was that he didn’t talk about the deficit, or welfare or other thorny issues which make certain sections of the party very grumpy indeed. The Labour leader made only fleeting references to cuts to public services, too. So there was little to disagree on. It is when he comes to tackle issues such as these that Miliband will see his party mood sour considerably from its cheery response yesterday.
The problem is that on these issues, the party is still struggling to work out how far it should go to meet voters’ demands without betraying what it sees as its core values. Liam Byrne is a member of the shadow cabinet who is well-attuned to what polling shows about attitudes towards welfare, but his pronouncements have a tendency to dismay his own activists. He performed an awkward dance on the benefits cap, which meant he was both ridiculed by Cameron for eventually opposing the section of the legislation, and criticised by members of his own party for failing to oppose it sooner.
I’ve just spoken to Labour MP Austin Mitchell who is furious that Byrne continues to be ‘too cautious’ on welfare cuts.
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