A day in the race: September 16th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Tonight is all about the Question Time hustings. They’re currently being recorded as I write this, but we’ll be live-blogging them when they’re aired at 10.30pm – please join us for that.

ED MILIBAND‘s team are increasingly confident that their candidate has the momentum in the race, and have been making noises that they expect their candidate to win.

Last night, Ed joined over eighty volunteers in London to “Call for Change” – speaking to undecided voters – even as most votes are already cast. This weekend, Ed will join volunteers in the last, crucial days of the Get Out The Vote operation to make a “final call for change”.

Campaign emails from 6 regional organisers were sent to supporters in the north west, east midlands, north east, Yorkshire, Edinburgh and London regions this morning as Ed’s team mobilises what Ed’s called his “secret weapon” in this campaign: volunteers.

Ed wrote for the Guardian today on climate change – but of course there was a leadership twist in the article:

“I believe that climate change is the greatest global threat facing our generation. It demands leadership and resolve. It should be at the very heart of our plan for a successful economy, at the centre of our foreign policy and integral to our mission to change Britain. Britain needs a leader who understands this and can provide this leadership.”

Today Ed was in the house DECC questions, and commented on the government’s handling of Trident, before heading to the BBC for the Question Time recording.

DAVID MILIBAND‘s campaign received a boost today as they were backed by the international news magazine “The Economist“. The magazine says that David:

“has a more mature approach to the central, most pressing issue of British politics-the deficit, and the spending cuts that he acknowledges it necessitates-than his rivals. He emphasises his liberalism as well as social democracy. Of all the candidates, he seems most likely to salvage what was valuable in Tony Blair’s New Labour: a belief in both free-market economics and high-quality state-funded services (by whomever they are provided). David Miliband seems best to appreciate that economic growth can come only from a nurtured private sector, rejecting the “default statism” of some in the Labour Party. He wants to devolve power from Whitehall and reform welfare, both urgent tasks.”

This morning David attacked the coalition for scrapping an investigation into how the police handle rape cases:

“This investigation would have helped police forces learn the lessons from past cases so they lock up offenders and provide the support victims need. The savings from shelving this investigation is tiny, yet its impact could have been huge.”

“Coming on the back of the government’s attempt to provide anonymity to pre-charge rape defendants and its cancellation of the Domestic Violence Protection Orders, this decision suggests the government is not doing all it can to protect vulnerable women.”

ED BALLS gave a range of interviews today. This morning he was interviewed by the Today programme, and set out some of the differences between himself and Gordon Brown:

“I disagreed strongly with Gordon on the 10p tax red cut, I felt we should have gone for the election in 2007, I felt he trimmed and fudged his message to try and keep the Daily Mail happy in a way that meant people didn’t know where we stood and I said that to him many times.”

Balls covered similar ground this morning in an interview with the Metro, and alluded to something he mentioned in the LabourList interview – that Ed Miliband was working for Gordon Brown long before he was:

“It was harder for me as I was very much seen as linked to Gordon Brown – more so than Ed Miliband, even though Ed wrote the manifesto, even though he was working for Gordon when I arrived in 1993.”

“I am more associated with the big causes but I decided to defend Gordon when times were difficult and I have no regrets.”

He also re-iterated his support for a diversity fund in a blog on his website today.

ANDY BURNHAM was interviewed by Progress. The interview was released yesterday, but we only became aware of it today. The key paragraph is:

“I have thought very carefully about the policies that are going to appeal to voters in the south. It’s why I talk a lot about care for older people because it’s going to be one of the big issues of this century. It’s where Labour collectivism can help people protect what they’ve made of their own life. If you have a national care service you can help people protect their homes and their savings in a way that the current system doesn’t let people do.”

“I think it’s a policy which can unite the bottom third and middle third of the country. It’s a policy that can speak, for want of a better word, to middle England.”

Andy also spoke out on hospital parking charges, saying:

“When someone has a relative in hospital it’s a very stressful time and worrying about parking tickets and charges can make this worse. For families of the sickest patients, the costs can put a huge dent in the weekly budget.”

“That’s why we had a modest plan, funded by back-office efficiencies, to phase out charges for inpatients, so the most vulnerable don’t end up paying the most. It has huge public support and patients and their families will feel let down by this decision.”

DIANE ABBOTT admitted being nervous today ahead of the Question Time hustings, saying that it was “nerve-wracking“. Her team have spent a lot of time encouraging supporters to attend/get involved with tonight’s show, so they’ll be hoping for a good performance from their candidate.

We’ve had our disagreements with Diane over polling before, but she’s had some potentially positive news today – the people of Buckinghamshire are behind her.