The Tory press want us to think Cameron’s home and dry – voters disagree

By Ken Livingstone

The Sun’s front page today, with the headline “Thy Will Be Gone“, aims to plunge the knife deep into the PM. James Forsyth in the Mail on Sunday pursued a similar line yesterday in his article “Even Brown’s praetorian guard know the game is up”. And the Telegraph today has further speculation about Labour’s leadership.

Yet the real story in this election is that it remains an open race that will determine whether Labour or the Tories are in government. The Tories have let their long-standing lead disappear and they haven’t won it back. David Cameron and the Tory press want to give the impression that he is home and dry. The voters don’t seem to agree.

This is the context in which the feverish speculation about Labour’s leadership must be seen.

No doubt one reason the media is pursuing this story at great length and with plenty of detail is that it wishes to show momentum around David Cameron in the final few days of the campaign but finds that reality keeps getting in the way. Tory-supporting newspapers are hampered by volatile polls which stubbornly refuse to deliver the required surge for David Cameron. The polls frequently contradict the right’s hoped-for scenario that Labour will come third. Media speculation that Labour is preparing to install a new leader can help the momentum narrative in the absence of actual momentum.

In the run-up to the election the right-wing press fanned coup speculation and notions of coronations. It didn’t do it out of the warmth of its heart towards the Labour Party. Now, the right wing press has returned to this theme. It does so to aid the right in British society, not the interests of progressive politics, and out of hostility for the opinions of party members and supporters.

Not only is there no vacancy for leader, there is no vacancy for deputy leader. The electorate haven’t cast their votes.

All of the media speculation is largely reported regardless of the party’s rules and constitution. Talk of “installing” Labour leaders is all the rage in newspapers that have never supported the Labour Party.

Yet this doesn’t stop the Tory-supporting press – none of whom have a vote under the Labour Party rules the last time I looked – debating “dream tickets” for the Labour leadership or installing a leader.

Some in the media may not like it, but we haven’t actually had the general election. The future of our economy and our public services are at stake. That’s the issue between now and the election being decided.

Labour members are fighting to win – to win the biggest number of votes and seats and fighting to stop a Tory government. Up and down the country people are working hard trying to maximise the Labour vote so that we have the strongest chance of keeping the Tories out of Downing Street.

Only the election of the biggest possible number of Labour MPs and the biggest Labour vote will stop the Tories getting into Number 10. That inescapable fact is the one we have to drive home in the next two days.

The interests of the economy, our society, and our public services, are infinitely more important and more likely to engage the public than speculation from the Westminster bubble.