A day in the race: August 21st

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

A furious Saturday of campaigning today, with one candidate picking up support at the expense of two rival candidates, rumours spreading over the political future of Charles Kennedy, and the Burnham battlesbus is parked up – but only for today.

ED BALLS picked up the support of two MPs today, both of whom had previously supported other candidates. Announcing their support, Balls said:

“This means that over the last few weeks four MPs who nominated other candidates have joined my campaign — Kate Green and Michael Connarty who both nominated Andy Burnham, and Nia Griffith and Ian Davidson who nominated Diane Abbott.”

“I’m fighting to win and over the coming weeks I’ll be travelling around the country setting out that there is an alternative — an alternative to this government on the economy and alternative candidate in this leadership election.”

However it was a defection from the Lib Dems, rather than from other leadership campaigns, that seemed to interest Ed most today. This morning he wrote a blog on the rumours surrounding Charles Kennedy, saying:

“If these rumours are true, I said, then it would be very welcome. And it would be no surprise because we’ve already seen thousands of Liberal Democrat supporters and members coming over to Labour since the election. Canvassing in the local by-election in Edinburgh yesterday it was striking how many people said they’d voted Lib Dem at the general election but never would again.The Labour Party would of course welcome these former Liberal Democrats if they wanted to join us. I’ve been saying for months that we are the last progressive party left in British politics, we’re the only party that’s standing up for working families, defending our public services and setting out a fairer approach to cutting the deficit, so it’s natural that those Liberal Democrats might decide to find a new home within the Labour party.”

Ed will now be taking his UK tour South from Scotland into the North East tomorrow, and the North West on Monday.

DAVID MILIBAND today reacted to the news that there will be direct talks between Israeli and Palestian representatives. Miliband said:

“I welcome today’s announcement of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and more important is the commitment of the US administration to seek to resolve all outstanding final status issues within a year.”

“It is vital that the vitality and integrity of this political process is shown to be real. Britain’s national interest is that a Palestinian state is built to live in peace alongside Israel, based on 1967 borders, comprising Gaza and the West Bank, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, and a fair resolution of the refugees issue.”

“It is vital that all states support the drive for final resolution, against the undoubted attacks and obstacles that will no doubt be thrown in the way. It is hard to think of a more important and soluble issue in international diplomacy.”

David spent today campaigning with Doreen Rudland and her team working for the Brotton by election for Redcar Council. Redcar is a seat that Labour lost to an enormous swing at the general election, and it’s surely one of the first seats we’ll need to win back if we’re to get back into government.

ED MILIBAND spent today in Livingston and Kinglassie for a couple of Q&As;, but his day was dominated by rumours that Charles Kennedy has been in discussions with his campaign – and that Kennedy is about to defect to Labour. Iain Dale has a transcript of a conversation Ed had last night in which he said that he’s “certainly encouraging the rumours.”

Ed took a different tack today however when he was interviewed by the BBC:

DIANE ABBOTT‘s tour of Scotland has continued today. Last night, Diane was at a constituency farewell party for the retiring Edinburgh MP, Gavin Strang who she described as ‘…good friend and a true Socialist. He will be greatly missed by his constituents and many of us in the Labour party’.

After a busy day of events yesterday including a visit to Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament, Diane has, this afternoon, been talking with Labour Party activists and supporters from the West of Scotland at the Scottish TUC.

ANDY BURNHAM parked the battlebus up today and took a well deserved break, visiting Goodison Park to see Everton draw 1-1 with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Tomorrow he’ll back back on the road.