A day in the race: September 2nd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

A quieter day in the leadership campaign today, as Tony Blair again dominated the airwaves. Whether or not it was a deliberate strategy, it’s probably for the best that today was a quiet day in the race. Very little would have made much of an impact today, and a quiet day in the media avoids “feeding the beast”. Instead, the candidates concentrated on electioneering to those lucky enough to have their ballot papers already…

DAVID MILIBAND has been in the North West, starting in Bolton, then Preston where he did a Q&A with the Lancashire Evening Post before meeting Unite members at BAE Systems. He then moved on to St Helens and finished the day at a rally in Liverpool with John Hannett (General Secretary, Usdaw), Stephen Twigg MP, Dave Rowntree from Blur and Louise Ellman MP.

In perhaps the most interesting act from a candidate today, David confronted the Blair issue head on with an email to party members, in which he said:

“I’m sick and tired of the caricature that this leadership election is a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour. It does a disservice to all of the candidates and, even worse, a disservice to the thousands of members who’ve been participating in this contest over the last few months and working hard for years.”

“To those trying to trash our past and those trying to recreate it, I say enough is enough, it is time to move on.”

“I joined the Labour Party back in 1983 because I believed then, as I do now, that we are stronger when we stand together. And that has never been truer than when applied to our party.”

“I believe that this election is about pulling together all the talents of our Party. It’s about teamwork, mutual respect – and a rejection of the tired old Westminster games of closed door briefings, posturing, attack and rebuttal. I want to change the way we do politics.”

David also received the backing of Mike Griffiths, the well known former NEC member and Party Chair today, as well as the support of Africans for Labour. His campaign also released the following video from his Movement for Change rally on Monday:

ED BALLS was on the Jeremy Vine show today, but the interview revolved more about the past that the current leadership race. Balls said that focused on “successes rather than recriminations. It was rather sad.”

As well as that interview, Ed today held a meeting with members in Basildon before heading to Gillingham – both marginal seats in the south which Labour lost and needs to win back. In both seats, the former MP is supporting Ed.

Tomorrow Ed will be making another policy intervention – this time on jobs. More on that when we have it…

You can now also watch the video from Ed’s speech at Bloomberg on Friday, where he attacks “Growth deniers”:

DIANE ABBOTT made a keynote address at Policy Exchange today, in which she critiqued David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ and spoke about how Labour can strengthen civic society. Diane said:

“You have to assume that Cameron is personally attached to the idea of the “Big Society” Because it has been met with near universal derision. And that is just from Tories. When he first spoke about it one anonymous Tory MP described it as “complete crap” The ineffable David Davis summed up the basic Tory position as follows “the corollary of the Big Society is the smaller state. If you talk about the small state, people think that you are Attila the Hun. If you talk about the big society they think that you are Mother Theresa” David Davis was further quoted by the Financial Times as referring to the Big Society as being the “Blairite dressing” to a cuts agenda.”

ED MILIBAND‘s campaign was concentrating on contacting party members today – however they’re being innovative in the way they’re doing it. As we said yesterday they’re using targetted emails to different sections and lists of supporters. Today they sent emails entitled “We’re voting for Ed Miliband – we hope you’ll join us” to supporters, with each area’s email signed by MPs and supporters from that area. It’s a really nice touch, as long as people don’t see through it for the slick campaigning technique that it is…

ANDY BURNHAM today promised greater mutualism in both football and finance, saying:

“I joined the Co-op Party over 10 years ago, after being inspired by the potential of the co-operative ideal in football. As Leader, I would put co-operative policies and new mutualism at the heart of Labour’s future policy offer. This is because, post-recession, it speaks to the public’s desire for a different approach to the ownership and behaviour of socially-important organisations. This can be seen in the success of the Co-operative Bank, which, at a time of crisis in the financial sector, was seen by the public as embodying trust and higher ethical standards. It can also be seen in the protest movements at Manchester United and Liverpool, as supporters call for the money motive to be tamed.”