Neil Kinnock has come out in support of Ed Miliband’s leadership candidacy today in the Observer. (UPDATE – and on the BBC Politics Show*).

It’s a “crucial” endorsement that will make the contest “explode into life”, that newspaper reports. James Macintyre at the New Statesman agrees.

In fact it seems hard to tell whether Kinnock’s backing will help or hinder the younger brother.

Blairite former Europe minister Denis Macshane thinks the latter, in this Tweet:

“Ed M would b good leader but do endorsements from Kinnock/Hattersley help? They did lose a lot of elections didn’t they great as they are.”

Here is a reminder of one of Kinnock’s more cringeworthy moments; in my view it shows a very human side to his character.

In other Labour leadership news, former home secretary David Blunkett has come out and backed Andy Burnham in the News of the World this morning. Presumably he hadn’t seen Burnham’s lacklustre appearance on the Marr show this morning. (Although he now has 14 nominations and his odds have just been cut by Ladbrokes from 8-1 to 7-1). Read more

Again, a question to which the answer seems to be no. Various talking heads were claiming this morning that the Department of Business – now run by Vince Cable – had somehow been sidelined because it only has one bill among the 21 which have been leaked to the Sunday Telegraph this morning (on broadband infrastucture).

This belies the fact that a bill for the Royal Mail part-privatisation, I’m reliably told, is still in Tuesday’s announcement (which also suggests that the Tel document may not be the final version). Bringing private money into the state postal operator is still a priority, albeit not necessarily one for this summer. Read more