Review of the race: David Miliband

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

David Miliband led the pack in the leadership race from the outset until the recent YouGov poll, which suggested that there may be a chink in his otherwise impregnable armour. We will have to wait until Saturday to find out whether that was the front-runner slipping in the final strait, or a minor bump in the road on the way to victory. Whichever it was though, David has run this long race like it were a marathon – consistent, calm and comfortable.

He started off this campaign with many of the advantages. As the first candidate to announce, he had a head start securing support from other MPs which he was able to leverage to his advantage. By the time nominations closed David (along with his brother) had a lock on the MPs’ section. It would take an incredible feat from any of the other candidates to overturn the Milibands now. It had become a two horse race.

David also began the race with a financial advantage (which other candidates chipped away at, but never eliminated), which allowed for a significant number of staff to be employed, and a professionalism and efficiency to be established that wasn’t matched by any of the other campaigns until much later in the campaign (if at all). He continued to raise significant sums throughout the summer, raising enough to spend a huge sum on training organisers, the crown jewel in David’s campaign, the “Movement for Change“.

Back in August when we last took a look at David’s campaign, I didn’t play up this aspect of his campaign as much as perhaps I should have. Training hundreds of activists to head out into their communities and fight for real, on the ground change is something incredibly worthwhile. It’s a great gift to the party which shouldn’t be forgotten, whatever the final result of this summer-long fraternal tussle. Labour must ensure that the valuable lessons learned by David, (and brought him to set up this laudable scheme) are also learned by the whole party. Elections won’t be won by press releases, debates in the chamber or (dare I say it) online. They’ll be won on your street, and in your estate. David Miliband understands that, and should be applauded for it.

What has been perhaps most striking about David is the confidence which he has exuded. Only once do I remember him losing his cool, when he appeared irritated and agitated during last week’s Question Time. Yet that was the smallest of setbacks as he immediately turned the debate on its head with a supreme example of taking the heat out of a difficult issue. Taking the debate down a notch on Iraq saw him rise above his competitors as the voice of reason. If he wins through, we’ll need to see this calm, cool exterior on show consistently against Cameron.

Yet for all the gravitas, intelligence and – rarely seen, but potent – humour that David possesses, there can sometimes be a sense that he doesn’t ‘move’ people in the way some of the other candidates do. He doesn’t get the loudest applause in hustings, nor (with his often contorted syntax) strike upon the phrase that makes you want to jump out of your chair and march. That’s not to say that is a bad thing. Sometimes it is necessary to choose between bombast and leadership. David has certainly chosen leadership. He looks and sounds like a leader, but sometimes I just wish for a little more emotional resonance. I want him to express the passion he has and share it with us a little more.

In August I said that David hadn’t put a foot wrong, and if he continued in that vein he’d be the next leader of the party. The problem now is that I’m not so sure – David hasn’t really put a foot wrong, and yet the race is on an absolute knife-edge. If he comes through on Saturday as the winner, then I think he’ll have earned it for his confident and assured performance over the past four months. If he loses, I’m not sure that’s a result he deserves…