A day in the race: June 4th

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

As of today, at the end of each day, I’ll be writing a brief summary of what each of the leadership candidates has been up to on the campaign trail for the Labour leadership.

Today, ED BALLS gave an interview to the Times (for publication tomorrow) in his old Normanton constituency. An interview conducted last weekend was also published today in the Yorkshire Evening Post, in which Balls talks about the perception that his campaign has started slowly:

“I didn’t think there was any need to go fast. This is going to last four months. Taking your time is OK. I came straight out of fighting a very hard fight in Morley and Outwood and visiting 45 marginal constituencies in the election campaign, went straight into four days of discussion with the Liberal Democrats nationally and once that had all done, I have to say, David Miliband had declared his candidature on the day the Conservative / Liberal coalition formed and stood outside Parliament with 25 MPs. At that point I had not spoken to a single person. I’m afraid I was still dealing with the reality of potential government and had been fighting a marginal seat. I moved more slowly because I had other things to do.”

And, in a subtle criticism of David Miliband for announcing his leadership intentions the day after the coalition formed, Balls says: “He’d obviously spent more time preparing.”

Balls also said it would be “very good” if Diane Abbott was on the ballot, and that he feels “absoluteley fine” if his remaining supporters nominated other candidates.

He also called for there to be hustings in the south west and the east as part of Labour’s leadership hustings.

Balls will appear on the BBC’s Politics Show on Sunday.

Frontrunner DAVID MILIBAND has been meeting party and union members in the West Midlands, visiting members in Dudley, Stourbridge, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

Douglas Alexander has today written in support of David Miliband, saying:

“I believe that David Miliband has good Labour values, can unite our party, and can lead us back to power at the next election. That is why I will be voting for him to be our next leader.”

ANDY BURNHAM, writing in Tribune today, has said:

“Some things may be uncomfortable for us to hear. There continues to be deep concern about anti-social behaviour in communities across the country, including in my own constituency. While ASBOs act as a deterrent for some, a small minority wear them like a badge of honour and wreak havoc unabashed. This cannot be allowed to continue. I want to work with the police and other agencies to get to the heart of these problems and resolve them, and give people back their peace and peace of mind.”

Also writing in Tribune, JOHN MCDONNELL says:

“The backdrop to the Labour leadership election is the consensus across the coalition government and the New Labour candidates that the £150 billion budget deficit must be reduced largely by public spending cuts. The main difference between them is the timescale in which the deficit must be reduced.”

And McDonnell attacks the other candidates for lacking imagination:

“None of them are willing to look at a serious increase in the tax take from either redistributive tax increases such as the Robin Hood tax or seriously tackling tax evasion and avoidance…I am standing in this leadership election specifically to call for a break in this cross-party consensus on who is to pay for the economic crisis…The only hope of Labour regaining office is to demonstrate a radical change in political direction of our party so that we lead the resistance to the coalition’s cuts and challenge the economic orthodoxies of the coalition and New Labour neo-liberals.”

John McDonnell also agreed to leadership hustings in the south west today, alongside Ed Balls.

Fresh from her appearance on Question Time last night, DIANE ABBOTT sought to capitalise on the widespread frustration with the nominations process process with an article in the Times this morning. She wrote:

“It is not just my belief that the threshold is too high. Charles Clarke, the former MP who designed the system when he worked for Neil Kinnock, boasted to me that he had devised it precisely to block the Left.”

Alastair Campbell said today that a Diane Abbott-led Labour Party would be “finished“.

After launching his living wage campaign last Friday, ED MILIBAND has had a quieter Friday today. Yesterday, he tweeted that he was “very sympathetic to what Harriet has said today on 50% women in Shadow Cabinet. Will ultimately be a PLP decision but I will be supporting it.” Later, he responded to many direct tweets from followers.

Total PLP support for each candidate as of this evening (with nominations submitted in brackets) is:

David Miliband 68 (62)
Ed Miliband 50 (49)
Ed Balls 33 (33)
Andy Burnham 21 (21)
John McDonnell 10 (10)
Diane Abbott 7 (7)

Hustings begin on Monday.