Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour finally starts to articulate its vision for British business

Why isn’t Ed Miliband at the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference? Ed Balls tried to defend his boss this morning as he arrived at the event, saying it was ‘getting a bit trivial’ to ask who was attending which conference. The Shadow Chancellor said:

‘Ed Miliband has spoken at this conference a number of times… They’ve got me and Chuka Umunna and this has been tabled and agreed for months and months and months. We’re setting out Labour’s position. As I said it’s the position of me and Ed and Chuka and the whole of the Labour party. Ed has spoken at the conference many times before.’

To be fair to Labour, if Umunna and Balls had been booked in to do this conference months ago, which they would have done, then to swap in Ed Miliband at the last minute because of a row that he hadn’t expected would have garnered far more attention.

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