Clock ticking as Labour leader Ed Miliband starts fightback

Problems compounded by brother David Miliband’s leaked speech on economy and deficit reduction Ed Miliband will tomorrow attempt to stem growing doubts about his leadership with an assault on Britain’s “take what you can” culture which is open to exploitation by benefit cheats and unscrupulous bankers. After a week of criticism of his performance, and damaging leaks, some senior Labour figures are advising Miliband that he must “up his game” in the next few months if he is to avoid a full-blown leadership crisis later this year. One ally of Miliband, whose troubles deepened with a poor Commons performance last Wednesday, told the Observer that unless he could turn his fortunes round by the end of the autumn party conference, his support would drain away. Others say Miliband has until next May’s local elections to show he has a programme for Labour that the party can rally around and the personality to shine in the job. Miliband’s inner circle dismissed talk of unrest and whispering campaigns against the leader, saying he was “getting on with the job of focusing on the important issues facing the country”. Yesterday, however, Miliband’s problems appeared to grow with the leak of a speech that his brother David, the former foreign secretary, had intended to deliver last autumn if he had won the leadership. In the speech David planned to take an arguably tougher line than his brother on deficit reduction, saying it was the most important issue facing the country. Following the leak the Labour leader received welcome support from former environment minister Michael Meacher who said David Miliband would have taken Labour down a disastrous route. “He would have taken the party to near-extinction, by adopting the [George] Osborne cut-and-slash strategy in full, and indeed perhaps going even further,” said Meacher. Labour strategists are worried that Miliband will be further criticised for lacking hard ideas on how to cut the welfare bill when the party votes against the coalition’s changes in the Commons this week. To counter such concerns Miliband will use tomorrow’s speech to claim that in government his party would pursue a more radical reform of the welfare state than the coalition. Rather than seeking mere cuts, he will say that Labour would look to restore the link between people’s contribution and their eligibility for assistance from the welfare state. A source said that Miliband would provide details of a series of measures that a government he leads would look to promote. “It is not just financial contributions we are talking about but contributions to the society they live in,” the source added. Miliband will also claim his party will tackle the City’s bonus culture, which the last government allowed to go unchecked. He will say: “The hardest truth is that too many people feel we became the party of those at the top and bottom who were not showing responsibility and shirking this duty: from bankers who caused the global financial crisis to some of those on benefit who were abusing the system because they could work – but didn’t. “Labour, a party founded by hard-working people for hard-working people, was seen by some – however unfairly – as the party of those ripping off society. A ‘take what you can’ culture which began in the 1980s was allowed to continue, unchecked, under the last government.” With reference to Lord Mandelson’s admission in 1998 that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”, Miliband will risk controversy by saying: “I’m not only relaxed about them getting rich,” he will say. “I applaud it.” Ed Miliband Labour party leadership Labour David Miliband Toby Helm Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.