I spent this morning with Ed Miliband on a trip to a factory in Sunderland. Miliband was
visiting the Liebherr plant there, which manufactures cranes.
The centerpiece of the visit was a Q&A with the workforce. Now, a factory in the North East is not the toughest venue for a Labour leader to play. But Miliband appeared far more comfortable in this setting than he does when giving a traditional speech from behind a podium.
Unlike Miliband’s Q&A at Labour conference, the questions were not softballs or traditional left-wing fare. One set of three questions were: why don’t we close the borders, bring back national service and do more to clamp down on benefit cheats.
Miliband was happy to point to a few areas where he accepted Labour went wrong in government.
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