Might Miliband move Labour to the left?

In media short-hand Miliband is a Blairite. But after talking to a bunch of folk over the last few weeks, I suspect that he might actually be a more left-wing PM than Brown. The theory goes that Miliband is not an uber-Blairitie, some of them express a certain disappointment in him—they brought him up and they expected great things from him but he has yet to deliver, and the political opportunities for Labour are on the left now.

If Brown were to shift slightly more to the left, the commentariat would scream that he had ‘lurched to the left’. However, if Miliband were to do so his labelling as a Blairite by the press would mitigate against this criticism. Indeed, the politically savvy thing to do for any incoming Labour leader would be to be more populist, to draw dividing lines that force the Tories into defending people who are politically difficult to defend.