A day in the race: June 29th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Ahead of hustings tonight in Oxford, most of the candidates have been relatively quiet. However, one candidate gave a keynote speech that sought to frame the debate of the race from here on in, whilst the others continued campaigning against the government.

ED MILIBAND today spoke to activists at Broadway House, in a speech that was trailed as a “stark warning” to the Lib Dems. In reality, the speech was more like an appeal to Lib Dem supporters. Miliband said:

“My message to Liberal Democrat voters is this: I want Labour to be your home”

Miliband also attempted to describe his vision for the future of the party at the country – at times disowning aspects of the New Labour legacy – whilst also defining his own vision:

“An economy that works for people. A more equal society with the space for people to flourish. A more engaging, more accountable, democratic state. This is the 21st century social democracy I believe in.”

After the event, Ed took part in a Q&A with the Demos Open Left project.

ED BALLS was today in Brussels meeting Labour MEPs. Balls isn’t supported by any of Labour’s European parliamentary group yet, so no doubt he’ll be hoping that changes after today.

Earlier, Ed continued his assault on the government for cutting funding for free school meals, as the cabinet met in Bradford. Ed said:

“Today, in a big own goal by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the new cabinet are having their first regional meeting in Bradford – one of five areas of the country which was going to trial universal free school meals for primary school children and will now lose out.

I hope they’ll take the opportunity to explain to parents and teachers across Bradford why they’re cutting funding for school meals which would have seen every child in the city get a free hot healthy lunch.”

DAVID MILIBAND was on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 today, and outlined what he believes are the reasons why Labour lost power nearly two months ago. David said:

“We lost the confidence of our supporters…on key issues we didn’t seem to stand for fairness – I’m thinking of the 10p tax fiasco.”

David also repeated a line he has used before while attacking the government over Sheffield Forgemasters, saying:

“The champagne corks are popping in Korea and in Japan, the only other two places that produce this kind of steel.”

Tomorrow David will be giving his own keynote speech in Bristol, at Redland Green School from 11am.

ANDY BURNHAM today appeared to have launched a campaign called “Save our Services”, which was announced through an RSS feed this afternoon. However, the page the feed comes to seems to have disappeared.

In the article, Burnham said:

“Today I am launching a campaign to Save Our Services – the public services, delivered by councils across the country, that support older and vulnerable people and which are facing coalition cuts of 25%.”

“Thousands of older and disabled people, the most vulnerable in society, their families and carers all depend on these local council run care services. And the NHS also relies on these services so that it can discharge patients back to their homes and communities, knowing that the appropriate support is in place.”

DIANE ABBOTT’s campaign has been very quiet today. Other than popping up twice on Twitter very early this morning to flag up newspaper stories on policing and Afghanistan there doesn’t seem to have been much action in the Abbott camp today.

However, Abbott usually comes to life in hustings, and I’d expect that to be the case this evening in Oxford as it has been on most other occasions – although her style may be hampered if it is in the sofa/chat style of previous official party hustings.

She’s now Tweeted:

“On the coach to Oxford for a leadership hustings. For 30 minutes on the A40, I lost the will to live. But we are making good time now.”