Disunity? Not so fast

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Several reports, including one in the New Statesman today, suggest Labour may be heading for a collision course of disunity. But rabble-rousers, each with their own agenda, should hold fire: Ed Miliband’s return from paternity leave, and the New Year, may well signal the beginning of his leadership proper.

Buried in the first of its series on whether New Labour is truly dead today, the Times has published (£) a morsel of what might be in store for Labour upon Ed Miliband’s return next week:

“Mr Miliband, during his absence from Westminster on paternity leave, is working out how a leadership, born of a process many regard as flawed, can now be draped in the mantle of reform and kick start the agenda which stalled 13 years ago.In the speech to the National Policy Forum meeting in Gillingham, Mr Miliband will talk about new policies being formulated over student funding, welfare reform and spending cuts, as well as telling Labour members that he wants to hear their views rather than just rubberstamp his own. His most significant announcement, however, will be that he is setting up a commission on reform of the party. The scope and remit of this review, including whether the extent to which it seriously examines the rules by which he was elected, will inevitably be seen as a key test of his modernising credentials.”

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