Bad to Worse
Things are going from bad to worse for the Labour Party as senior figures continue to speak out about Ed Miliband's leadership and his problems in being seen by voters as a credible, future Prime Minister.
A former Labour MP and Scottish Minister in the last Labour Government, Brian Wilson has even gone as star as comparing Ed Miliband to Michael Foot who led his party to defeat in the 1983 general election.
As this report from The Sunday Times shows after more than four years since his election as Labour leader in 2010, Ed Miliband's stewardship of the party is still in question and that's by people on his own side.
Marie Woolfand Tim Shipman - The Sunday Times
Targeted: the Labour leader is egged in south London (Lewis Whyld/PA Wire)
ED MILIBAND was compared to Michael Foot, Labour’s least successful modern leader, last night, as MPs rounded on his leadership and demanded policies to beat Ukip.
A new poll reveals today that voters judge Miliband to be almost as bad a leader as Foot, who led the party to its worst modern defeat in 1983.
Twenty-two per cent of voters think Miliband better than Foot, while 21% favour Foot. Twenty per cent say they are about the same. By clear margins Miliband is seen as a worse leader than Gordon Brown or Neil Kinnock.
By a margin of nine to one, voters think Labour would be better off without Miliband. Fifty-four per cent say Labour would fare better if he goes while just 6% say the party would benefit from him staying.
Labour voters also think the party would be better off if he quits, by a margin of 46% to 13%. David Miliband, Alan Johnson and Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, would all improve the party’s prospects, the poll found.
Brian Wilson, a minister in the Blair government, warned that Labour may regret winning the Heywood and Middleton by-election, where it beat Ukip by 617 votes, because it meant Miliband would lead the party into the general election.
MPs campaigning there accused the party of using Obama-style tactics that were irrelevant in Manchester.
One said Labour made little effort to woo back lapsed supporters who had abandoned the party in recent years. “Labour was using its traditional get-the-vote-out technique and tactics used in the American states that were totally irrelevant in Middleton,” one said. “Meanwhile, Ukip was knocking on doors and persuading people to vote for them.”
John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said Miliband’s leadership was being raised by voters as a key concern. “Without question the Miliband factor is an issue on the doorstep and regularly so. What he needs to do is show that he can move outside his comfort zone. That is what Farage is managing to do.”
Kate Hoey, the MP for Vauxhall, accused the Labour leadership of ignoring MPs who warned about the impact of immigration and the EU, which she said had now “come back to bite us”.
Hoey called on the leadership to stop forcing MPs to read from a script, adding that Burnham could “connect with people”.
“I do think we have to talk about the issues that people are concerned about. Ed is our leader, but I do think they have got to allow people to be much more open about saying things. Everything shouldn’t be so much part of the script.”
Steve McCabe, the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, said Labour had to show Ukip voters the party “is listening and treating them seriously”.
He said: “It’s obvious that some of their concerns are things we must focus on, in particular immigration. They are concerned about the pressure on housing and pressure on schools and the impact on wages, and these are all legitimate issues for people to raise and legitimate issues for us to respond to.”
Lord Ouseley, the Labour peer, warned that the leadership “is lacking conviction and trust” and must win it back by interacting with ordinary people on the doorstep.
“The only way I can see of effectively seeing off Ukip is to spend time talking to local people and convincing them that they are valued and their concerns are being addressed.”
Austin Mitchell, the MP for Great Grimsby, added: “The main thing that alienates the ‘left-behind tribe’ from Labour is our vacuous enthusiasm for the EU. It’s our albatross.”
A former minister said MPs would like to oust Miliband but had “no candidate” to replace him. They are frustrated that Johnson, the former home secretary who began his working life as a postman, will not offer himself as an interim leader.
“The postman won’t do it,” the minister said.
ED MILIBAND was compared to Michael Foot, Labour’s least successful modern leader, last night, as MPs rounded on his leadership and demanded policies to beat Ukip.
A new poll reveals today that voters judge Miliband to be almost as bad a leader as Foot, who led the party to its worst modern defeat in 1983.
Twenty-two per cent of voters think Miliband better than Foot, while 21% favour Foot. Twenty per cent say they are about the same. By clear margins Miliband is seen as a worse leader than Gordon Brown or Neil Kinnock.
By a margin of nine to one, voters think Labour would be better off without Miliband. Fifty-four per cent say Labour would fare better if he goes while just 6% say the party would benefit from him staying.
Labour voters also think the party would be better off if he quits, by a margin of 46% to 13%. David Miliband, Alan Johnson and Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, would all improve the party’s prospects, the poll found.
Brian Wilson, a minister in the Blair government, warned that Labour may regret winning the Heywood and Middleton by-election, where it beat Ukip by 617 votes, because it meant Miliband would lead the party into the general election.
Writing in the Scottish edition of The Sunday Times, he said: “There was a by-election in Darlington a few months before the 1983 general election, and the fate of Michael Foot’s leadership of the Labour party hung upon it. If Labour lost, Michael would have retired. Labour won by a few hundred votes, Michael Foot remained as leader and catastrophe ensued.
“It may be that Heywood and Middleton will be looked back on as Ed Miliband’s Darlington. If things go wrong, the post-mortems may well conclude that Labour’s fate was sealed the night it won Heywood and Middleton, because these 617 votes kept Ed in a job.”MPs campaigning there accused the party of using Obama-style tactics that were irrelevant in Manchester.
One said Labour made little effort to woo back lapsed supporters who had abandoned the party in recent years. “Labour was using its traditional get-the-vote-out technique and tactics used in the American states that were totally irrelevant in Middleton,” one said. “Meanwhile, Ukip was knocking on doors and persuading people to vote for them.”
John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said Miliband’s leadership was being raised by voters as a key concern. “Without question the Miliband factor is an issue on the doorstep and regularly so. What he needs to do is show that he can move outside his comfort zone. That is what Farage is managing to do.”
Kate Hoey, the MP for Vauxhall, accused the Labour leadership of ignoring MPs who warned about the impact of immigration and the EU, which she said had now “come back to bite us”.
Hoey called on the leadership to stop forcing MPs to read from a script, adding that Burnham could “connect with people”.
“I do think we have to talk about the issues that people are concerned about. Ed is our leader, but I do think they have got to allow people to be much more open about saying things. Everything shouldn’t be so much part of the script.”
Steve McCabe, the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, said Labour had to show Ukip voters the party “is listening and treating them seriously”.
He said: “It’s obvious that some of their concerns are things we must focus on, in particular immigration. They are concerned about the pressure on housing and pressure on schools and the impact on wages, and these are all legitimate issues for people to raise and legitimate issues for us to respond to.”
Lord Ouseley, the Labour peer, warned that the leadership “is lacking conviction and trust” and must win it back by interacting with ordinary people on the doorstep.
“The only way I can see of effectively seeing off Ukip is to spend time talking to local people and convincing them that they are valued and their concerns are being addressed.”
Austin Mitchell, the MP for Great Grimsby, added: “The main thing that alienates the ‘left-behind tribe’ from Labour is our vacuous enthusiasm for the EU. It’s our albatross.”
A former minister said MPs would like to oust Miliband but had “no candidate” to replace him. They are frustrated that Johnson, the former home secretary who began his working life as a postman, will not offer himself as an interim leader.
“The postman won’t do it,” the minister said.
