MANCHESTER LETTER:The elder Miliband managed his exit with some dignity, despite his delay in announcing it, writes MARK HENNESSY
TO THE end he was applauded. Groups of Labour delegates, many hugging their arms around their chests, gathered around television screens in the convention centre hosting the party’s conference in Manchester last evening to watch David Miliband – the man who could so easily have been the party’s leader – announce his decision not to run for the Labour shadow cabinet and return instead to the party’s backbenches.
He managed his exit with considerable dignity, probably enough to ensure he will not be widely accused of childish pique, even though more than a few delegates were irritated by the delay in his announcement, which meant the Manchester conference was dominated by a family psychological drama.
One would have been forgiven for thinking some Labour Party members this week had suffered a family bereavement, so great was their sense of loss at the narrow defeat suffered by the elder Miliband in the race for the party leadership at the hands of his brother, Ed. Sometimes, the grieving smacked of self- indulgence, bordering on the hysterical.
The sibling rivalry that has convulsed Labour and offered such enjoyment to the media can be put to one side, for now.
The elder Miliband made it clear he wanted his brother to be given the space to set his own stamp on the leadership, rather than permanently face accusations of rifts with the new leader.
Most of those who did not support Ed Miliband and are unsure of his capabilities are slowly coming to terms with the new reality. They accept, at least, that Labour has to leave Manchester united if the party is to ensure that one term in opposition is exactly that – and not a return to the 18 years in the wilderness endured after the 1979 thrashing suffered at the hands of Margaret Thatcher.
The elder Miliband is, undoubtedly, a significant politician, though the legacy from his short term in office has been somewhat inflated.
First elected in 2001 for South Shields, after serving as one of Tony Blair’s closest aides, he was appointed schools minister after just a year in parliament and was quickly tipped for higher roles. In 2007 he was appointed foreign secretary, serving three years.
Gordon Brown was there for the taking in mid-2009, after James Purnell quit the cabinet. Brown was petrified that others would join him, particularly Miliband, who was and is a close friend of Purnell’s, but he shied from the task.
Ever since, many in Labour have been convinced he just didn’t have that trait of ruthlessness seen in those who want to get to the top in politics.
Clearly, he does not want to be seen as ever ready to remove his brother. However, the role may be imposed on him even as he busies himself in the Commons tending to the needs of his constituency and focusing on climate change and environmental issues, depending on how the new leader’s fortunes fare. For now, though, that is an unwritten tale.
Ed Miliband is growing in confidence, feeling comfortable enough to make it clear as he stood outside the Midland Hotel in Manchester’s city centre last evening in misting rain that he reserved the right to bring his brother back into a frontline role if and when that would best serve Labour’s ambitions to oust the Conservative/Liberal Democrat alliance. He will have noted, however, the cheers received by his brother.
His decision to challenge his brother showed steel, and he showed more of it yesterday. Miliband suspected the loyalties of Labour’s chief whip, Nick Brown – a noted Gordon Brown loyalist – and has ordered him to stand down from the elected post.
Brown, a former agriculture minister and a noted political bruiser, complied, leaving Rosie Winterton to take the influential Commons post unchallenged.
Leading Labour MPs – most of whom did not vote for Ed Miliband, or, at least, did not give him a first preference – are now scurrying to get on side with the new leadership.
The shadow cabinet is elected by the Labour parliamentary party, but it is the leader who decides who gets what job afterwards.
The competition is already intense, with old loyalties being quickly shredded.
Ed Balls made his pitch yesterday for the shadow chancellor’s job – the most senior position bar the leader’s chair. The new leader will have to decide if the former schools secretary – who will be portrayed by the Tories as a deficit-denier – is the man to ensure that Labour wins back the record for fiscal credibility that he said was so important in his main conference speech on Tuesday.
Currently the Balls message is capable of caricature, but Balls makes it well, even if – for an Irish ear listening to him – he is depressingly quick to use Ireland as an example of what the United Kingdom should not be doing: “The International Monetary Fund praised the Irish Government for its ‘sense of urgency’. And what has happened since? Recession turned to slump.
“Unemployment is at a 16-year high, 19 consecutive months of deflation, consumer spending and tax revenues plummeting, and the deficit is now worse than when they started,” said Balls, driving home a message that had been given earlier by former chancellor of the exchequer Alastair Darling.
Darling still nurses resentment at the Irish Government’s 2008 decision to guarantee bank deposits and transactions without notice.
Balls approvingly quoted economist David McWilliams: “He said this week: ‘It is like watching a slow car crash. The more they cut, the more the economy will continue to stagnate.’ George Osborne used to say that Ireland has so much to teach us, if only we were willing to learn. Now he’s the one ignoring the lessons,” he said. Delegates lapped it up.