In praise of Ellie Gellard – and the real story behind her rise

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Tomorrow morning’s front pages contain some meaningless stories about Ellie Gellard, who introduced this morning’s manifesto event.

I’m not going to link to them – you know how to find them if you must – but they reflect is churnalism at its worst, with little regard for the real story behind Ellie’s rise to prominence over the last year. They are based on one part of a story, a much larger story than the reports themselves represent.

The jist of them, however, is that Ellie wrote that Gordon Brown had had his chance in 2008, and should step down as Labour leader. It was written a couple of months after the 10p tax rate saga – which most Labour members hated, and which the PM has repeatedly admitted was a mistake, and apologised for – and a few days after the disastrous Glasgow East by-election in July 2008.

And the post was written two years ago.

Within the last year, I, too, have said that Gordon Brown should stand down. But does the right wing press go after me? No. But there’s something cynical about tomorrow’s stories: for whatever reason, they sell newspapers.

The real story here is not that Ellie once said Gordon should stand down. The real story is that Labour – the cabinet, the grassroots, and the commentariat – have rallied behind Brown as leader over the last year, and learned to accept him, admire him and work for him and the party, in spite of his faults. Activists like Ellie, and who knows how many others who once had doubts about Gordon Brown, have absolutely coalesced, and are working incredibly hard for his return to Number 10, against the odds.

Ellie is one of those thousands of people – young and old – who work hard for the Labour Party, not just in delivering yesterday’s introduction, but also in fighting back against attacks in the right wing blogosphere, and on the doorstep – where it really matters. These activists are giving up their evenings and weekends for one reason: to try and re-elect a Labour government that we may not always agree with, but which reflects our values more than any other, and which we will strive to protect with passion.

That Ellie has been invited to represent Labour shows that the party is listening to supporters, and using their ideas for its own campaigns and to carry its message. We’ve seen that with the #WeLoveTheNHS campaign, the #MobMonday campaign and we’ll see it again in the coming days.

These are things we in the Labour Party can celebrate and be proud of, and Labour in turn can be proud of its activists – including Ellie.