A day in the race: July 2nd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

All of the candidates were in Leeds at various times today for the Unison hustings – but that didn’t stop it being a hectic day for most of the leadership camps.

Another busy day on the campaign trail for ANDY BURNHAM, as his campaign has started to pick up the pace in recent days. After appearing on This Week yesterday evening, and putting in a reasonably comfortable performance against Andrew Neil, Burnham penned two interesting pieces today that sought to set out his policy positions and his USPs.

First up today was an article for the Guardian, in which Burnham laid out his plan for “Aspirational Socialism”, saying:

“In this country it’s still the postcode of the bed you are born in that determines pretty much where you will end up in life, and we must be about redistributing aspiration.”

Later, Burnham wrote exclusively for LabourList, expanding on the ideas laid out in the Guardian, and also trying to put distance (and difference) between himself and the other leadership candidates. Burnham told LabourList:

“Aspirational Socialism brings together the best of old and new Labour. It’s about people looking out for each other and getting on in life. It is about giving hope and aspiration to those for whom life is hardest and who are too often trapped by their circumstances; such as people on short-term contracts or who don’t have job security and who end up paying more for their utilities just because they don’t have the right bank account. Aspirational Socialism responds to the needs of the first generation of property-owning pensioners who don’t want to lose all they’ve worked for just to pay for their care in later years. Aspirational Socialism gives kids without connections the opportunities they need to get on in life, through broader educational choice and greater access to the professions.”

ED BALLS today wrote for Tribune and attacked the budget again, describing it as the “budget from hell“.

Balls has seemed the most comfortable of the leadership candidates at challenging the government, and rarely misses an opportunity to do so. His article this morning combined defending Labour’s economic record (which he obviously has a significant stake in), with an attack on the underlying ideology behind the coalition cuts:

“This was not an unavoidable budget. It was purely ideological. George Osborne does not need to wipe out the deficit in five years. He wants to use the consequences of the recession as a cover to roll back the state and achieve in five years what the Tories did in eighteen.”

Balls also wrote a blogpost in which he reaffirmed his support for AV, saying:

“Now more than ever we need a system through which MPs are elected with more than half the votes but that also allows constituents to clearly hold their MP to account.”

And finally in a typically busy day for the Balls camp – they released a new leaflet, and new support from Kate Green MP, who had previously supported Andy Burnham.

ED MILIBAND today came out in support of the upcoming AV referendum on AV. Reacting to news of the referendum on Twitter this morning, Ed said:

“Strongly support case for AV:greater fairness for voters & legitimacy for MPs.I’ll campaign for change w/ ppl from across political spectrum”

This afternoon his team uploaded a video to his site complete with instructions on how to get your CLP to nominate him. The video was shot last night at Tooting CLP (who nominated Ed) which is the home to Sadiq Khan, one of his strongest supporters. Watch it below:

DAVID MILIBAND also backed the AV referendum today while speaking on the Today programme. David said:

“I think that it’s important that we move to a system where every Member of Parliament has at least 50 per cent of the vote of their constituents.”

This afternoon David posted an article he’d written on health inequalities on his website, in which he praised the work done by the NHS, but argued that promoting good health and preventing poor health were key. David said:

“It is a scandal that the life of a baby girl born in Glasgow today is expected to be over 11 years shorter than a girl born in Kensington and Chelsea. While life expectancy across the board rose, we didn’t do enough to reduce that inequality.”

DIANE ABBOTT had a particularly quiet day on the campaign trail today, and hasn’t been heard from with the exception of the Unison hustings. As we have hustings scheduled over the weekend, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from Diane over the next two days.