A day in the race: July 7th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today the candidates were down on the south coast in Bournemouth for the LGA Labour group hustings, yet the day hasn’t been dominated by local government issues as you might expect. There have been continued rumblings over the cancellation of BSF, the Abbott campaign has built on a successful volunteers event, and the 7/7 bombings were remembered, five years on.

Last night DIANE ABBOTT held what was by all accounts a successful volunteer and support event. It was attended by in excess of 100 people who were addressed by Hackney North CLP Chair, Barry Gray and Diane herself. Diane then headed back to the chamber, where she stayed till 3am voting on the Finance Bill.

The success of this event was highlighted in an email to supporters this evening, in which Diane thanked supporters for coming last night, and said:

“Remember this will not be my victory. It will be a victory for all of us over the “business as usual” crowd” and the Westminster insiders. We are going to win this leadership campaign. And you are going to help me do it.”

Yesterday Abbott also commented on the torture enquiry, in what may be considered a veiled attack on one or more of her opponents. In a statement on her website, Diane said:

“This enquiry is very welcome and long overdue. The issue of possible British government involvement in torture is one that I raised on the floor of the House of Commons a number of occasions.”

“We have to know whether any ministers were complicit. Any involvement in torture, whether British personnel physically tortured anyone or not, would be quite contrary to Labour values.”

ANDY BURNHAM‘s campaign contacted supporters last night with an exhaustive email that told supporters where the campaign is at, and what help they need in moving it forwards.

The email refuted claims that Andy is about to drop out of the campaign, and suggested that the Burnham camp feels he is being briefed against, saying:

“Andy is certainly not pulling out, it’s Michael (White) and his London elite getting more than a little worried about how well Andy is doing. Andy is actually the only one in this contest who is gaining momentum and picking up first preferences by the day. But so much for a stop to the behind the scenes briefings – I wonder who could have been responsible?”

Andy has also released the first of what are expected to be regular campaign video diaries:

DAVID MILIBAND fleshed out some of his thoughts on local government today in a blogpost ahead of the LGA hustings. In particular David focused on housing, saying:

“We rightly focused first on improving the stock — through the Decent Homes programme — but should have acted quicker to increase supply. We need to find ways of meeting the demand for new social and affordable housing.”

Today Miliband received the support of two more MEPs, Peter Skinner (South East) and David Martin (Scotland). They said:

“We fear for the welfare of the most vulnerable in society and the lowest paid under the coalition Government. They need Labour back in power as soon as possible. Our duty is clear – to back the candidate most likely to achieve this. David struck us as having the drive, the programme and the commitment to make it happen.”

David was interviewed by Pink News today, in which Miliband re-iterated his support for the Pope’s upcoming state visit, as well as giving his views on full marriage rights for LGBT couples, saying:

“I’ve not got a closed mind on that. Many of my friends who are gay have had civil partnerships. They — and I — think of them as completely equal. I think it’s seen as gays and lesbians are equal. The last civil partnership I went to, there was no sense of all of this being anything other than the most complete private and public commitment to devotion.”

David also recorded an Audioboo on his memories of the 7/7 attacks, five years on:

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ED MILIBAND had a relatively quiet day, splitting his time between the LGA hustings and press interviews.

In an interview with Liberal Conspiracy, Miliband came out firmly against ID cards, saying:

“As someone who is liberal on social issues and civil liberties, I accept that in government we were too draconian on aspects of our civil liberties. We have to have to be able to say we won’t go back to ID cards. Stop and search went too far.”

Later today in response to the Independent Climate Change email review, Ed attacked the coalition’s stance on green issues, saying:

“the government should still be campaigning to increase people’s understanding of the seriousness of the threat of climate change. I have seen no evidence the coalition is prepared to do so.”

ED BALLS took his attack on Michael Gove over the cancellation of BSF into a third day today, after it was revealed that Gove will be apologising to the house for errors made in the list of school building projects to be cut. Balls said:

 “I welcome the media reports that the Education Secretary is expected to make an apology for the serious errors made in his list of school building projects to be cancelled”

“Michael Gove must also reconsider his unfair and unnecessary decision to cancel over 700 new school buildings, which will dash the hopes of hundreds of thousands of pupils, teachers and parents and cost many thousands of jobs in the construction industry too.”

Yesterday Ed was in Suffolk visiting local schools. While he was there he recorded the following video: Â