Category: Labour

David Miliband edges back into domestic politics

November 10, 2011 5:41 pm by Kiran Stacey

Word reaches us that David Miliband is getting ready to dip his toe back into domestic politics with an appearance on Newsnight next week. Although dates have not yet been finalised, David is keen to go on the programme to talk about his work on the youth unemployment task force, which was set up by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, and which he chairs.

Since the Labour leadership election, Miliband Senior has kept his public interventions in politics mainly to large-scale foreign policy questions. This is in part because of his previous job as foreign secretary, but also it has helped his younger brother find his feet on the bread-and-butter issues of British politics without interference.

The fact that he is now starting to speak out on issues as core as the economy may be a sign of two things: that David is now confident that his profile will not prove a distraction and that jobs and growth are such major issues that Labour wants all its big players to start campaigning on them.

Tags: David Miliband
Posted in Labour, UK politics | Permalink

PMQs: Cameron forced to the left

November 2, 2011 1:29 pm by Kiran Stacey

It was an intriguing PMQs today. As I have previously noted, Ed Miliband has begun to find his feet on the economy, and once again used this as his main attack line.

As he has done at previous sessions he chose an obscure policy that has achieved little so far (this time the “business growth fund”, which was set up using money from the Merlin agreement), and used it to embarrass the PM.

As has happened before, Cameron didn’t know what the policy was (in fact at the end, he started talking about the Regional Growth Fund – a different fund altogether). So when asked how many businesses the fund had invested in, he was unable to answer.

Continue reading: “PMQs: Cameron forced to the left”

Tags: pmqs
Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Labour, Recession, Tax, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink

Scottish boundary review hits coalition MPs

October 13, 2011 12:21 pm by Martin Stabe

The proposals for reducing the number of Scottish MPs in Westminster by seven seats, put out to consultation today by the Scottish Boundary Commission, does the Government no favours.

The FT’s initial analysis of the Boundary Commission for Scotland proposal (which can also be seen on our interactive map) suggests both Coalition parties are likely to lose out, with the only Scottish Tory and three of the 11 current Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs likely to lose their seats as a result of the boundary changes.

Among the Lib Dems, this could provoke a tussle between party grandees Charles Kennedy and Danny Alexander, whose adjacent constituencies could be merged into a new “Inverness and Skye” constituency. Alternatively Kennedy, Alexander and John Thurso could all compete for the new seat of “Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty”, which has boundaries cutting across all three MPs’ existing constituencies.

Continue reading: “Scottish boundary review hits coalition MPs”

Tags: Boundary review, Scotland
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, UK politics | Permalink

PMQs may have been a turning point for Miliband on the economy

October 12, 2011 3:20 pm by Kiran Stacey

At today’s PMQs, we saw a first: it was the first time that Ed Miliband attacked Cameron on the economy, and won – well almost.

Provided with the ammunition of some terrible employment figures, Miliband had an ideal quote with which to bash the prime minister:

The prime minister justified his economic policy by saying unemployment would fall this year, next year and the year after. Isn’t it time he admitted his plan isn’t working?

Continue reading: “PMQs may have been a turning point for Miliband on the economy”

Tags: pmqs, prime minister's questions
Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Labour, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink

Ed Miliband looks for the moral high ground

September 27, 2011 3:58 pm by Kiran Stacey

Labour figures believe David Cameron was onto something when he started talking about “ethical capitalism” in 2009. They feel he then abandoned such talk when he became prime minister, and reckon that Ed Miliband now has the opportunity to capture that ground.

That is why his speech was so heavy on words many in New Labour would have hated: words like “values”, “right” and “wrong”. Take this passage for example:

You believe in the values of the long term. But in our economy, you’ve been told the fast buck is ok. And what’s happened? We’ve ended up with a financial crisis and you’ve ended up footing the bill.

One member of the shadow cabinet described the strategy to me as like putting up a (morality) tree from which you could hang various attacks, whether on nefarious bankers, feckless benefits cheats or asset-stripping corporate vultures.

The worry will be, however, that moralising starts looking like hectoring. Already commentators are starting to question the value of lines like “You know what your values are.” People don’t want to hear that, they want to hear what Miliband’s values are.

Posted in Ed Miliband, Labour | Permalink

Could Labour find a way to dodge the police commissioner elections?

September 27, 2011 2:22 pm by Helen Warrell

So, will Labour field candidates for the election of police and crime commissioners or will it find a way to avoid putting up its own contenders?

Toby Harris, Labour peer and former chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, warned conference delegates in Liverpool on Monday that party grandees are considering not contesting the PCC vote in November 2012. But this morning, Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, was quick to dismiss suggestions of a boycott. She told the BBC:

That’s not what we are proposing but we will have to consider how we respond to the legislation that has just gone through Parliament. We will be thinking about the best way to respond to do that.

Continue reading: “Could Labour find a way to dodge the police commissioner elections?”

Tags: Police commissioners, Yvette Cooper
Posted in Labour, UK politics | Permalink

How much will Balls’ growth plan cost?

September 26, 2011 4:38 pm by Kiran Stacey

Ed Balls’s flagship announcement at his party conference speech was a “five-point plan for growth”. Some of the policies were old, some were new. He said that if Labour was in power it would:

Repeat last year’s bank bonus tax, using the money to build 25,000 affordable homes and guarantee a job for 100,000 young people;
Bring forward long-term investment projects, such as schools, roads and transport;
Reverse the VAT rise now for a temporary period;
An immediate one-year cut in VAT to 5 per cent on home improvements, repairs and maintenance;
A one year national insurance tax break for every small firm which takes on extra workers.

Continue reading: “How much will Balls’ growth plan cost?”

Tags: Ed Balls
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink

Three challenges for Miliband’s Labour party

September 26, 2011 3:58 pm by Jim Pickard

All is calm in Liverpool. Unlike last year’s Labour conference in Manchester, ripped apart by fratricide and the gloom of being in opposition for the first time. Or the year before that – in Brighton – when, despite looming defeat, delegates were gripped with election fever. (Akin to the music-playing on the Titanic ahead of its final plunge.)

In recent years Labour fought against the inevitability of eventual electoral defeat with no regard to the internal collateral damage. Now its people have realised that government is at best a long four years away.

There is no overwhelming sense of disunity. For sure, the Blairites and the left-wingers still disagree on which direction to take the party; but without the viciousness of the past. Out of power and without a policy platform such arguments can only be philosophical rather than practical.

Nor have there been personal fisticuffs. I’m told that David Miliband considered staying away altogether to avoid negative coverage. In the end he dropped in for a day and made a plausible display of loyalty to his brother. This morning we saw Ed Balls describe Ed Miliband as a “friend”. (The reality may be closer to ‘frenemy’, but relations are better than they were eight months ago.)

This does not negate the fact that the party still faces considerable hurdles.

Continue reading: “Three challenges for Miliband’s Labour party”

Posted in Ed Miliband, Labour | Permalink

Has the coalition stitched up the police bill to help Clegg?

September 7, 2011 6:36 pm by Helen Warrell

Grumblings of discontent were heard along House of Lords corridors today as Labour and Lib Dem peers accused the coalition of rushing through legislation on the controversial police and crime commissioners with a cunning timetabling ploy.

Following the derailing of the bill by Lib Dem peers in May, the government has now provoked fresh displeasure by tabling the parliamentary ping pong – where the bill is batted back and forth between the two houses – for next Wednesday, the same day that the legislation on fixed term parliaments is also due to be debated.

Labour Lords in particular complained that it was extremely unusual for two such major bills to be scheduled so close together, and are accusing the coalition of what they have diagnosed as a “political stitch-up”. The idea, they say, is to get the contentious police reform package through parliament before Nick Clegg has to face any gip on the subject from Lib Dem party members at their conference, which starts the following Saturday.

Continue reading: “Has the coalition stitched up the police bill to help Clegg?”

Tags: police
Posted in Home affairs, Labour, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg | Permalink

Darling’s book has blunted Ed Miliband’s best line of attack

September 7, 2011 1:16 pm by Kiran Stacey

On the day after George Osborne admitted that he had recently lowered his short-term growth expectations, and with a row currently waging over the government’s wish to scrap the popular 50p top rate of income tax, Ed Miliband might have been expected to use the first PMQs after the summer to attack David Cameron on the economy.

But instead, we found ourselves in two rather old arguments, about police numbers and NHS waiting lists. While both are undoubtedly important subjects, somehow the debate felt a bit off-topic.

The reason for Miliband avoiding the big issue of the day became apparent later in the session, when the prime minister was asked by a Labour backbencher about the 50p rate and replied:

The person responsible for Labour’s economic policy at the last election said that they had no credibility whatsoever.

He was referring to Alistair Darling, Labour’s former chancellor, whose memoirs published this week describe a 2009 pre-Budget report whose creation was so chaotic and disunified that it resulted in a complete mess of an economic policy.

Continue reading: “Darling’s book has blunted Ed Miliband’s best line of attack”

Tags: Alistair Darling, Deficit, economy, Ed Miliband, pmqs
Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Deficit, Ed Miliband, Labour | Permalink

Cameron treads a fine line on Libya allegations

September 5, 2011 2:12 pm by Kiran Stacey

The revelations in the FT and elsewhere that MI6 appeared to have a close working relationship with the Gaddafi secret services is providing something of a dilemma for the current government.

One one hand, this is an open goal for the coalition to plunge the knife into Labour: to accuse them of collusion with the Gaddafi regime in torturing Libyan dissidents. And there are signs that Tory MPs are doing just that.

Patrick Mercer, the former chairman of the House of Commons subcommittee on counter-terrorism, said over the weekend:

This document seems to indicate that our intelligence services were getting unhealthily close to practices that the British government at the time and its successors rightly condemn.

I trust that the Foreign Secretary will look into this, despite the fact that it did not happen on his watch.

Continue reading: “Cameron treads a fine line on Libya allegations”

Tags: gaddafi, libya
Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Foreign policy, Labour | Permalink

UK riots: Ed Miliband strikes a conciliatory tone

August 11, 2011 12:51 pm by Kiran Stacey

Today is a difficult day for Ed Miliband and the Labour party. Which way do they tack on the issue of riots?

Ed’s instincts are to examine the social causes for the disorder, and tackle its root causes. But he knows the public might see that as excusing criminal behaviour, so he has to tread a fine line, especially if he wants to distance himself in part from the government.

His speech started in a moderate tone, welcoming the prime minister’s speech and thanking the Speaker for recalling parliament. This is a tactic he has used effectively in recent months, starting consensually before working himself to a rousing and more combative finish.

Continue reading: “UK riots: Ed Miliband strikes a conciliatory tone”

Tags: UK riots
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Home affairs, Labour, UK politics | Permalink