A day in the race: July 5th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

A quieter day on the campaign trail today – with most of the attention turned to parliament over cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme, and Nick Clegg’s AV announcement. These issues informed much of the debate in the leadership election today, although as is often the case these parliament focused days tend to be quite one dimensional.

ED BALLS revelled in today’s proceedings (although I doubt he enjoyed the decisions the government are taking), attacking the government on BSF. Speaking to BBC News, he said:

“All the effort, the time, the millions of pounds which have been put into these new schools and, if you talk to young people in communities where they’ve had a new building they say, we never really thought we were that worth it and this investment, the fact that we are really valued it means we are inspired to work harder and there will be hundreds of thousands of children and parents and governors and teachers whose hopes will now be dashed. I think it is deeply short-termist, I also think economically it is madness, the idea that we will be laying off thousands of private sector construction workers just at the point when the recovery is taking hold. Of course over years we must get the deficit down, but to do it fast now at the cost of our children’s education is so short-sighted.”

On the Daily Politics today, Ed was asked for his opinion on voting reform, and, like Andy Burnham, appeared to be AV agnostic. While previously he has been very pro-AV (and stated that his support goes back as far as him becoming an MP in 2005), today he was much less clear, saying that he would be “wary” of campaigning for the referendum:

“It seems that they’re deciding to do this on the same day as other elections… They’re going to combine it with an attempt to change constituency sizes. The point is that it completely disenfranchises further any people who aren’t currently registered to vote…Nick Clegg and David Cameron are trying to gerrymander our constitution…I think the Labour party will look at this and be very, very wary indeed”

ANDY BURNHAM’s campaign now has a fully operational HQ as Burnham noted today on Twitter. His team has also started advertising for volunteers on the website w4mp. The advert uses what the campaign have often cited as Andy’s USP, saying:

“Over the past 25 years, Andy has represented the party at every level, from CLP secretary to secretary of state. He first began attending meetings when he was 14, a full year before he was allowed to join the party. Born and raised in Merseyside, Andy saw first-hand what real ‘broken Britain’ looks like and wanted to play his part in changing it.”

Andy already has a few full-time campaign team members, but these new positions are voluntary. His campaign has certainly clicked into a higher gear over the last week, but it will be tough for them to compete with the much larger, and better funded, Miliband teams.

The DAVID MILIBAND campaign today released a video from USDAW chief John Hannett, explaining when the union is supporting the elder Miliband, on what was a fairly low key day for the campaign by their usually high-octane standards. You can see the video here:

David spent today concentrating on the impact of the Tory abandonment the BSF program. In an Audioboo recorded today, he remembered the day that he started the scheme as schools minister:

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Last week, David Miliband received the support of several council leaders in London, a list of which can be found here.

ED MILIBAND today received the endorsement of Glenis Willmott, Labour leader in the European Parliament. Glenis said of Ed:

“Ed not only has the unquestionable intellect required to address the many issues which will face us in the coming years, but also a passion which resonates with those of us who want to continue to defend Labour’s values.

I know that he has the intelligence, the campaigning zeal and the steely determination we need to stand up for those people who will suffer most under the current government. He has undoubted ability, total confidence, a real humanity, and a warm intelligence; qualities essential to lead in the modern age. On behalf of all of us, he has the will and the wit to stand up to David Cameron, at the dispatch box, at prime ministerial debates, and in the country.”

DIANE ABBOTT still has little campaign to speak of, which surely must be worrying to her supporters as the Burnham campaign begins to develop and risks leaving her behind as the candidate with the most obvious lack of funding and organisational support. I by no means think that Diane will struggle for support, but these races are won and lost on the quality of your field game. At the moment Abbott doesn’t have one so far as we can tell. Hence her constant quietness in Day in the Race.