Tonight’s debate: Initial reaction

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Tonight’s Fabian hustings, sponsored by LabourList amongst others, was much more passionate and vigorous than the Youth hustings on Friday night.

The style of hustings, with each candidate stood behind a podium, allowed for a much looser debate which allowed candidates who had been quieter on Friday to come out of their shells a little more. In particular Andy Burnham and Ed Balls seemed more vigorous than in earlier debates.

There were some real stand out moments this evening. Perhaps most notable was Andy Burnham’s somewhat surprising decision to come out in support of the Iraq war. Burnham feels that we need “a framework for intervention”, but on Iraq itself he said, “I stand by the original decision.” Whilst at times Burnham appeared to inspire the crowd with his aspirational narrative about his own background, and “ordinary kids without connections”, it is hard to believe that his comments on Iraq won’t draw the most attention.

David Miliband, engaging and confident as he has been throughout these hustings, nonetheless appeared at times a little technocratic. He was at his most impressive when he listed foreign policy decisions post-Iraq that he stood by, including support for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka and a “23 state solution” for the Middle East (encompassing all nations in the region). He was however a little less clear in his answer to the question “Are you a socialist?” Whilst all other candidates gave their own versions on an unequivocal yes, David replied that our membership cards say we’re a democratic socialist party, and that he’s happy to sign up to that.

Ed Balls was on good form, often using anecdotes to get his point across, and played the self-effacing joker to good effect. He sought once again to present himself as a standard bearer of traditional Labour values, which he did well tonight.

Diane Abbott was, as she usually is, populist and personable. She gave a much better performance than on Friday and seemed a lot more comfortable with the other candidates and her surroundings than she was on armchairs with Fiona Phillips last week. She gained rousing cheers and even whoops from the audience for her defence of single mothers and also hinted at an emerging strategy, being the first candidate to canvass support for the second preferences that will decide this election. In her closing remarks Abbott tackled the Tory cuts agenda full on, saying:

“When Cameron says cuts will change our way of life, he doesn’t mean his way of life – he means your way of life.”

In terms of who was most impressive tonight, Ed Miliband was the most fluent and convincing, and certainly gave the most passionate performance I’ve seen from him in this campaign. His opening speech was comfortably the strongest, and his desire to make Greens “ex-greens” by winning over green voters was very popular in the hall. However his closing statement was a little flat in contrast with the other candidates – especially Ed Balls who gave a powerful closer focused on child poverty and his will to win. On balance I would probably give Ed Miliband the victory tonight by a narrow margin – although many may give tonight to Burnham or Balls who both closed well. It is part and parcel of these debates that the final scuffles tend to stick in the mind longer than the opening salvos, perhaps unfairly – and that may have cost Ed Miliband a little tonight.