A day in the race: July 23rd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Well it may be all change here at LabourList as of today, as Alex throws me the LabourList car keys and tells me to return it in two months with no scratches, but it’s been more of the same in the leadership race as we plunge headlong into what promises to be another furious event-filled weekend.

Today we’ve had Miliband (D) campaign chief Douglas Alexander writing for LabourList on why he’s the “grassroots candidate”, Ed Miliband unveils a new strand to his organisation, and there was a spate of petition signing.

DAVID MILIBAND has spent today in the wonderful North East of England, and he’ll be there for the whole weekend. Today he was in his constituency of South Shields, before heading to Durham this evening.

This morning he visited Year 6 pupils who have been studying democracy at Marsden Primary School, then visited St Clare’s Hospice Shop, had lunch at Jarrow School to mark their end of the year, made a visit to South Shields Job Centre, went to the new Librady in the Cleadon Park re-development and finished it off with his constituency surgery, which must have been a change of pace from hustings. That’s plenty of constituency visits for any MP – nevermind one standing for leader.

This evening David M will be holding a Q&A in Durham and speaking at the launch of the South Durham Enterprise Agency.

Writing today for LabourList, David’s campaign chief Douglas Alexander called him the “grassroots candidate” a theme that the camapign have been trying to cultivate for a while now as we head towards the close of nominations. Douglas said:

“If we’re honest with ourselves, this is not the Labour Party’s usual response to defeat. Circular firing squads have been the more usual order of the day. After defeats in the past we’ve tended to take decisions which have seen us turn in on ourselves or retreat into the comfortable familiarity and purity of opposition. As a result, it has in the past meant that Labour has been out of power for an average of 10.5 years after defeat.”

“In William Hague, the Tories picked a leader after their defeat in 1997 who did little else than appease their core vote – leading to a second landslide defeat for the party and a total of 13 years before they would return to Government. That came to my mind recently when a Tory MP told me “it took us three goes to get a leader we needed rather than just one we wanted”.”

I’m not sure that the final attack is one they should stick with. Surely they should be saying their candidate is the one the party wants and needs – rather than selling him as a neccessary medicine. Time will tell, though.

Later, David wrote for Left Foot Forward on the economy, saying:

“This time around I don’t believe our party and our movement is content to let history repeat itself. There is a deep commitment to get back into power as soon as possible. This is based on enduring Labour values: stronger together, not each on their own.”

“However, these values alone will not be enough to stop the Tories. We need to convince the British people that we also have the mettle to stand up for them and face up to the tough challenges our country faces.”

ANDY BURNHAM was back on the campaign trail today, signing up to a campaign by Intern Aware on long internships without pay, and attacked the BBC. Andy said:

“There are young people working within the BBC for long periods without pay. This is not fair to them, but more importantly it excludes many others who simply don’t have the means to support themselves.”

“We look to our national broadcaster to set a better example and not take advantage of the desire of young people to work within the media. The BBC needs to show leadership and put an end to this practice immediately.”

Later Andy turned on Eric Pickles over his decision to close the Government Office Network yesterday which will affect hundreds of workers in the eight English regions:

“The Coalition talks about the need for local control, but they are taking away the very support networks that local authorities rely on for strategic regional policy making, on issues from transport to housing. They are making decisions in Westminster ivory towers without understanding the consequences that will have.”

ED MILIBAND was in another former stomping ground of mine today as he visited Cambridge. Ed held a meeting with former MP Anne Campbell and 2010 Cambridge candidate Daniel Zeichner.

This evening his campaign contacted supporters about what they hope will be a successful “online phone bank”. If this takes off it could give a real organisational boost to the Ed campaign, and help them bridge some of the financial divide. It looks like a smart move if they have the volunteers to do it. In the email, field director Marcus Roberts said:

“We’ve already come so far in this campaign to elect Ed Miliband as Labour Leader. Going into this weekend, we’ve received the nominations of over 125 Constituency Labour Parties, 4 trade unions, 2 affiliated societies and 69 parliamentarians. From a standing-start, and in a very short amount of time, we’ve built a powerful organisation, an organisation fit to win.”

He also goes on to make what is surely an attack on the David Miliband campaign, saying that Ed’s campaign isn’t build on “big money”:

“As Ed says, our campaign is a low budget, high enthusiasm campaign. It’s been built not on big money, but on the hard work of our inspiring volunteers — well over a thousand people who have signed up to stuff envelopes, make phone calls and knock on doors.”

Ed’s campaign was the first to deploy text messaging in its communications too today, with a simple thank you text to volunteers. That’s an interesting new development: I’ll keep an eye on how he uses the new contact with supporters throughout the rest of the campaign.

DIANE ABBOTT had a quieter day today after her successful day of campaigning yesterday, backing a petition by the campaigning group “Keep Our NHS Public”, and saying:

“I wholeheartedly support Keep Our NHS Public’s petition.”

“I asked for reassurance from my own government that no further NHS services would be privatised. Now I am asking the Lib-Cons to give me that reassurance.”

“The NHS is far too important to be run by faceless companies whose main concern is their profit margins, not the health and wellbeing of people. I will fight alongside Keep Our NHS Public to ensure this does not happen.”

A quietier day today from ED BALLS today – he was doing meetings and visits in his constituency. Tomorrow he is holding party meetings in Bolton and Wigan; while on Sunday he’s at the women’s hustings in Leeds and a party meeting in Nottingham in the evening. You can listen to Ed B’s appearance on the Guardian’s Politics Weekly show here.