Miliband to visit Bradford and “learn lessons”

Ed Miliband has said that he will visit Bradford West to “learn lessons” from last night’s defeat. He also stressed that “we need to be engaged and rooted in every community of this country” – something which was clearly not the case in Bradford.

“It was an incredibly disappointing result for Labour in Bradford West and I am determined that we learn lessons of what happened. I’m going to lead that. I’m going to be going back to the constituency in the coming weeks to talk to people there about why this result happened.”

“Clearly there were local factors, but I also say only four out of 10 people voted for the three mainstream political parties. We’ve got to understand the reasons why that happened in Bradford.

“Above all it reinforces for me something that I’ve emphasised throughout my leadership which is that we need to be engaged and rooted in every community of this country.”