Compass backs Ed Miliband

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Compass have today announced that they will be supporting Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership contest following a ballot of their members. Ed Miliband received over 50% of the votes polled, and over twice the number received by Diane Abbott, who came in second place. The results are as follows:

Ed Miliband : 342
Diane Abbott: 117
David Miliband: 77
Andy Burnham: 24
Ed Balls: 20

While it is not exactly surprising that Compass, like Tribune this morning, have decided to back Ed, what is surprising is the very comfortable margin by which he has won this ballot. Many have accused Ed of leaning to the left, and the support of the centre-left pressure group certainly shows that he has been able to win support in that area. This suggests that most Compass members are in opposition to their most famous member, Jon Cruddas, on the leadership, after Jon backed David Miliband just over a week ago.

In a statement on their website, Compass said:

“The Compass membership has voted overwhelmingly to support Ed Miliband in becoming the new Labour leader. They have done so because, much more than any other candidate, he offers the possibility of the kind of real change our country needs.”

“Compass will engage constructively but critically with Ed. We will work to help him fulfil his campaign promises and call him to account if he falls short.”

“The leadership campaign has been notable in two key respects. First, how much of the Compass programme of the last five years has now entered mainstream Labour and consequently national debate: lending rate caps on the cost of credit, a graduate tax, a living wage, a High Pay Commission, making the windfall tax on Bankers’ Bonuses permanent, a land value tax, an emphasis on progressive tax reform over spending cuts – as well as reforming the Party through community organising and movement-building – these are all ideas and issues Compass has championed. But despite the length of the campaign, no candidate articulated a vision which joined these polices up or set them within a strategy – not just to win next time but to win with a purpose. Perhaps most worryingly none of the candidates supported meaningful electoral reform; the key that would unlock a new politics of pluralism and radicalism.”

“But Ed Miliband has came closest to the new politics, a critique of the market and the reform of the state that Compass wants to see, and that is why he won the support of our members.”

Related posts:

1. Darling backs David Miliband
2. Oona King backs Ed Miliband
3. Unison backs Ed Miliband
4. Jack Straw backs David Miliband: 8 in the morning, August 12th
5. New Compass committee members announced