More detail from last week’s LabourList poll as the campaigns heat up

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Andrew Sparrow at the Guardian has just published a few extra details from the last couple of weeks’ LabourList leadership polls, including the preferences of exclusively Labour members and union members.

Andrew quotes the topline figures and the figures for the union members, and says:

“I would not read too much into these figures. But I think it’s fair to say that the figures showing David Miliband way ahead of his brother are misleading. Among Labour members (who have a third of the votes in the contest) David may be just seven points ahead of Ed and among union members (who comprise another third of the electorate) the two brothers may be neck and neck.”

Here’s the full breakdown of what I sent him:

Week One, published two weeks ago, May 13:

Answering “yes” to “Are you a member of the Labour Party?” (50% of total respondents, 555/1,111)

David Miliband 31.9%
Ed Miliband 22.1%
Jon Cruddas 13%
John McDonnell 10.3%
Ed Balls 3.8%
Andy Burnham 3.8%

Week Two, published last week, May 21:

Answering “yes” to “Are you a member of the Labour Party?” (61.5%, 425/691)

David Miliband 31.8%
Ed Miliband 25%
John McDonnell 15.3%
Ed Balls 5.4%
Andy Burnham 5.2%
Diane Abbott 2.8%

So, over the two weeks LabourList have held the polls, amongst self-identified Labour members the gap between David and Ed Miliband has closed from roughly 10% to roughly 7%. And, as Andrew Sparrow points out, amongst union members it is a dead heat, with 22% supporting David Miliband, Ed Miliband and John MCDonnell respectively.

The next LabourList leadership poll will be conducted after close of nominations on June 9th.

An interesting piece about the leadership campaigns has just gone up on Labour Uncut too, focusing in partiular on the battle of the Milibands. It says of David Miliband’s campaign:

“The older Miliband’s Parliamentary footsoldiers, as well as being the most numerous, are also the most shinily zealous. They come the closest to not taking no for an answer from those who are yet to decide…Team David was also the first to move into its new campaign office.”

And of the Ed Miliband campaign:

“Ed Miliband, meanwhile, has made his temporary home next to Labour’s national HQ, just up the road from Westminster Abbey, on Victoria Street. The nerve centre of Project Ed is currently kitted out with “three phones and a laptop that’s not plugged in”. It is thought that this will improve. Nor has it prevented Project Ed from producing by far the best website of the six…The younger Miliband is the poster boy of the Twitterocracy. He is not a true Twitter native himself. Balls actually engaged more and earlier. But the Twitterati have taken Ed M to their hearts, and he is winning that war. (David tweets exclusively by text, which, to Tweeters, tells its own story).”

With David Miliband spending time today launching his new website and Ed Miliband inviting his email list to an event on Friday at which he will launch his campaign for a living wage, I think it’s going to get interesting.