Ed miliband

During Ed Miliband’s time as Labour leader, he was subject to opposition from MPs in his own party as those in other parties. In fact, Miliband couldn’t even rely on his own family for unconditional support, with his brother David — who had lost out to Ed in the Labour leadership election — seldom praising his performance. Still, at least Ed can take heart that he’s not the only Labour leader that his brother has little positive to say about. In an interview with ES Magazine, the former Foreign Secretary — who quit UK politics to head up International Rescue in New York — is scant on praise for Jeremy Corbyn: ‘He’s won his majority and the

When an ICM phone poll this week had Labour level with the Tories for the first time since Jeremy Corbyn became leader, even the pollster cast doubt on the finding. But today, YouGov has Labour ahead by a point—34% to 33%. YouGov’s Anthony Wells says that this suggests ‘something is genuinely afoot’. Now, as the election reminded us polls are not all seeing. It is also doubtful what the value of a poll is this far out from a general election: Ed Miliband was regularly ahead by large margins during the last parliament and still went on to lose the election. One also suspects that if Labour was being covered

In 2010, Ross Kemp appeared in a party political broadcast urging the public to vote for Labour in the General Election. In this, the EastEnders actor, who plays Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, warned the nation against voting for David Cameron: ‘It only takes around 60 seconds to cast your vote. 60 seconds to protect the economy, 60 seconds to protect your jobs, 60 seconds to protect the services your family relies on. And a lot is at stake during those 60 seconds, David Cameron and George Osborne would cut child credits and tax funds. They would put police numbers and schools at risk. With George Osborne at the

Last week Jeremy Corbyn was left red-faced in PMQs after David Cameron asked him why he had allowed Gerry Downing — a 9/11 apologist — to rejoin the party. While Labour later expelled Downing, the party now face fresh controversy over one of its other members. This morning Guido Fawkes revealed that disgraced former Labour PPC Vicky Kirby is Woking Labour’s ‘newly elected vice chair’. Kirby was suspended by Ed Miliband in 2014 after the Sunday Times revealed that she had suggested Isis should attack Israel. So with two dubious members re-admitted, one could be forgiven for thinking that there is a bit of a pattern developing here when it comes to Corbyn’s Labour. However, one bright spark

Ed Miliband has been keeping a low profile since stepping down as Labour leader, but could he now be angling for a return to frontline politics? Miliband was spotted engrossed in conversation this lunchtime with Team Corbyn. A beady-eyed spectator snapped a photo of Ed having a coffee with Seumas Milne — Corbyn’s director of comms — and Kevin Slocombe — head of Leader’s media — in Portcullis House. Can you get me a meeting with @jeremycorbyn please @SeumasMilne? pic.twitter.com/JA2I6YuKD4 — Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) February 23, 2016 Watch this space…

There was one infamous invoice missing from the Electoral Commission’s campaign spending data yesterday — that of the EdStone. Labour claimed that the missing invoice was simply down to an ‘administrative error’ rather than a reluctance for the public to know how much money was spent on the disastrous election gaffe. Happily Bloomberg News have been on the case. They report that recently unearthed invoices show that the 8ft stone with Labour’s election promises inscribed cost just under £8,000. While that is significantly less than the £30,000 reported by newspapers at the time, it can hardly be called a bargain. The stone led to ridicule after it was unveiled in

Today the Electoral Commission have released the campaign expenditure returns of the six political parties that spent £250,000 or more on campaigning in the General Election. While the Conservative’s £15,587,956 campaign bill could be argued to be money well spent given their majority win, Labour have a bit more explaining to do it when it comes to £12,087,340 they splashed on their failed campaign. So, where exactly did the money go? Almost £600 went on chicken suits, while a grand total of £223,573 went to Miliband’s hot shot US Advisor David Axelrod’s company AKP&D Message and Media. However, the bill that is of most interest to Mr S relates to Michael Sheehan. Back in

Labour’s report on its election defeat is finally out, and it says there are four reasons for its defeat: Failure to shake off the myth that we were responsible for the financial crash and therefore failure to build trust in the economy. Inability to deal with the issues of ‘connection’ and, in particular, failing to convince on benefits and immigration. Despite his surge in 2015, Ed Miliband still wasn’t judged to be as strong a leader as David Cameron. The fear of the SNP ‘propping up’ a minority Labour government. These are not surprising, and the report’s narrative verdict on how the party lost is far more interesting. It charts

We’re republishing our ten most-read articles of 2015 and no8 is from Peter Oborne in defence of Ed Miliband. The Spectator has a proud tradition of running well-written features that go against the magazine’s own political sympathies and challenging conventional wisdom. In the end, Miliband lost – but on election day every opinion poll and bookmaker had him on course to win – or, at least, deny Cameron a majority. And those who think that Miliband’s manifesto was a pile of guff should ask why George Osborne has now implemented so much of it. Oborne’s piece is a wonderful example of the argument that almost prevailed. We also include his discussion with Dan Hodges. [audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_12_Feb_2015_v4.mp3″ title=”Peter Oborne and

Arnie Graf was, for a little while, the man who was supposed to rebuild the Labour party after its 2010 defeat. He was a famed community organiser from the US, brought over by Ed Miliband to have a go at revitalising is party. Graf didn’t last, but last night he spoke about his experiences with the Labour party, and what he thought of the current surge in membership under Jeremy Corbyn. This was his first brush with proper party politics, and while Graf had clearly enjoyed the work he’d done in building up the party in small local areas with community meetings, he said ‘I wouldn’t come back to it

Since Ed Miliband stepped down as the leader of the Labour party, the Labour MP for Doncaster North has vowed to keep a low profile as a hard-working backbencher. So Mr S suspects that the former Labour leader was disappointed to discover that half of the lobby have joined him this morning on his train journey to his constituency. Several political journalists travelling up to Doncaster for the Ukip conference have reported that Miliband is also on the train: https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/647310773430157312 However, it’s not all bad news for the backbencher, who was snapped buying breakfast ahead of the journey, with staff in Pret a Manger claiming they once voted for him: Ed Miliband

On religion, Jeremy Corbyn is interestingly moderate, circumspect — not the angry atheist you might expect. In a recent interview with the Christian magazine Third Way, he said his upbringing was quite religious: his mother was a ‘Bible-reading agnostic’ and his father a believer, and he went to a Christian school. ‘At what point did you decide that it wasn’t for you?’ he was asked. He replied very carefully, even challenging the premise of the question: ‘I’m not anti-religious at all. Not at all… I find religion very interesting. I find the power of faith very interesting. I have friends who are very strongly atheist and wouldn’t have anything to

Shortly before the last election a group of Labour MPs approached Ed Miliband to ask him what he would do if he lost. They suggested he could provide stability by staying on as leader for a while, as Michael Howard had done, and that his last duty should be to oversee an inquiry into what went wrong at the general election. Miliband, still convinced he would win, did not entertain the idea, to the dismay of his policy chief, Jon Cruddas. After the election, Cruddas decided to go ahead and do an inquiry anyway. The results will infuriate the Labour left. The inquiry found that Labour’s anti-austerity message put voters

Jeremy Corbyn wants to forge a new kind of politics, answering public discontent with the way things are done in Westminster. One of the things that voters often say they don’t like about politicians is the way they appear to abandon their principles in exchange for power. The idea that power acts as a sort of fire extinguisher on principles has been debated rather exhaustively through the leadership election. But Corbyn won that contest in part because people admired his ability to stick to his principles even when that appeared inconvenient. As an obscure backbencher being principled to the point of unpopularity was easy. Corbyn is discovering this week that,

Ahead of the Labour leadership results, Lucy Powell engaged in some gentle bitching online about Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of social interaction with her. Ed Miliband’s former deputy campaign chief told Miliband’s former political secretary Anna Yearley that she had never, ever met the man of the moment. @AnnaYearley I have never, ever met or spoken to him. At PLP, in Chamber, in voting lobbies, tea rooms, library, anywhere … — Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) August 18, 2015 This led Ukip’s Douglas Carswell to offer to make an introduction. Happily this gesture won’t be needed as the times are a’changin. Seemingly willing to overlook this slight, the newly-elected Corbyn has appointed

It’s fair to say that the appointment of Ed Miliband’s ex-campaign director Spencer Livermore to the House of Lords hasn’t gone down well in Labour circles. Harriet Harman was said to be in a battle to get a similar honour for her own press chief Ayesha Hazarika if Livermore got one, but her name was absent from yesterday’s Dissolution Peerages. Now word reaches Steerpike that party members are questioning what exactly Livermore — who also worked on Gordon Brown’s election-that-never-was back in 2007 — is being rewarded for. While Mr S is yet to learn the answer, it is fair to rule out his election judgment. On polling day, Livermore wrote a

This summer a new craze has taken hold of several politicians. Inspired by the frenzy Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘world weary sea dog’ beard has caused amongst women, both Ed Vaizey and David Gauke grew their facial hair in the style of the Labour leadership favourite. Now it appears Ed Miliband may have jumped on the bandwagon. The former Labour leader has been snapped sporting some serious bristle which bears a striking similarity to the facial hair sported by Labour’s new man of the moment. https://twitter.com/KerronCross/status/634320796110991360 With Corbynmania currently sweeping the nation, Mr S suspects Ed is keen to make sure the Milifandom survives.