By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk
Today was (thankfully) a quieter day in the leadership race than yesterday. No union nominations, but plenty of media appearances – including an intriguing BBC interview.
Tonight the candidates are at the London hustings (although of course many hustings events have already taken place in London already), before a hectic run of six hustings events in the next three days.
DIANE ABBOTT was the fifth and final candidate to be interviewed by BBC news in their leadership race profiles.
In by far the most contentious interview of this series, Diane accused her rivals of being ‘up to their necks’ in the bitter feuds of New Labour, and described her four rivals as ‘geeky young men in suits’ . Diane is also critical of Ed Balls, saying that if he didn’t brief against Blair then it must have been his ‘evil twin brother’.
Perhaps most cuttingly, Abbott accuses the other candidates of “pretending they weren’t there” when it comes to decisions of the previous government:
“You wouldn’t believe to hear them that they were at the heart of the new Labour project for at least a decade, whether or not they were MPs or not, they were at the heart, they were working for one or the other of the two key people; they were members of cabinet for five years and yet at hustings after hustings they tell you they disagreed with this, they disagreed with that, they don’t know why we did this, they don’t know why we did that, and all this hand-wringing and pretending they weren’t there, that they weren’t at the heart of the project, is slightly, ….amazing.”
Diane also wrote a blogpost today laying out her views on Trident – in which she criticises her opponents “inability to be brave and stand by the values of the Labour Party”.
“I think ….that Trident is a New Labour talisman, borne out of the need to chase, or in this case avoid, Daily Mail headlines. It is symptomatic of the way we made policy in government and symptomatic, I’m afraid of many of my contender’s inability to be brave and stand by the values of the Labour Party. I say brave because sometimes it’s difficult saying what’s right. Sometimes it’s difficult to make the case against the right wing press – It is difficult but absolutely necessary. At so many junctures in our time in government we were too scared to make the case for what was right – civil liberties, immigration, trident.”
After a strong and personable appearance on “This Week” yesterday, ED BALLS was back campaigning on education today. Balls says that the Acadamies Bill is being forced through parliament as if it were an emergency:
“I cannot remember a time when a major reform of public services was rushed through Parliament in a way that’s only normally done for emergencies like anti-terrorism legislation. As we’ve seen in the last few weeks, rushing big changes before they’ve been properly thought through is a sure fire way to get things wrong.
This Bill will not only see the Academies programme distorted from its purpose of helping to turn round weaker schools to rewarding schools that are already doing well, but will also pave the way for a free market schools experiment which saw standards fall and inequality rise when it was tried in Sweden.”
Speaking to James Macintyre of the New Statesman, Balls admits that he wishes Peter Mandelson had never brought out his book, but said there are no hard feelings between them:
“Peter was Labour and I was Labour, we wanted the government to succeed, we wanted to win the election, Peter and I were always the people who, at key moments, were willing to go out and defend the government. I was never part of any plotting and I don’t think anyone suggests Peter particularly was. We were both, as we saw it, trying to do the right thing and doing the right thing meant coming together. We were more effective than we would have been opposing each other; just not effective enough sadly.
“Therefore, when Peter looks back with regret that he didn’t turn it around, and I look back and regret that I didn’t turn it around, both will look back and regret that we didn’t turn it around together and there’s a sort of commonality in that, but I have no anger or bitterness towards Peter at all. In fact the opposite.”
After a manic day yesterday ED MILIBAND has returned to a more normal pace today.
It is believed, but not yet confirmed by the campaign, that they raised their £5k target in small donations yesterday. We’ll letr you know when we have the final figure.
Today Ed wrote a blogpost, identifying cuts to three areas – university places, pensioners’ bus passes and the green economy – as symptomatic of the coalition’s true colours.
DAVID MILIBAND accused the government of taking a “massive risk with all our living standards” this morning. Speaking to the Today programme, David said:
“The government is trying to make us believe that if you don’t believe in the masochism of Mr Osborne then you’re in denial – we’re not in denial. We’ve got a growth plan and a serious plan to halve the deficit over four years.”
And on the question of whether or not he is seen as a ditherer, Miliband said that isn’t how members know him:
“They know me as the person who invented the building schools for the future programme, they know me as the person who was committed to devolution of power, they know me as the environment secretary who invented the climate change bill…as a foreign secretary who stood up for values and interests of Britain throughout the world.”
David also signed an Early Day Motion against the government’s plans to extend anonymity to defendants in rape cases, wrote a blogpost on his website explaining his stance.
ANDY BURNHAM as on Question Time last night, and gave an impressive performance (after a low-key start) and challenged Francis Maude effectively on the NHS.
Burnham’s sole MEP supporter Brian Simpson wrote today that he is supporting Burnham because:
“I believe Andy Burnham is the person well suited to do that job and take this party into government.”
“I will be supporting Andy in this Leadership election because I am convinced he is the right person for the job and because I know he will reconnect the Party Leadership, not only with the British people but with the Labour Party and the Trade Union movement as well.”
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