Don’t stop now Ed

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

It’s hard to believe that the Ed Miliband who arrived in the commons yesterday and eviscerated the government over BSkyB is the same Labour leader who has so often struggled to make his point in the raucous, white hot atmosphere of the commons. The stumbling, throat clearing “Mr Speaker…Mr…Mr Speaker” was gone, replaced by confidence and clarity. To those of us who doubted him only days ago, he has shown his mettle. It would be near impossible not to be impressed with how he has handled the events of the past week. It has gained him some unlikely admirers.

Yet as I argued on Saturday, Ed Miliband’s actions on phone hacking, the News of the World and BSkyB may soon be forgotten by an attention-deficit prone public – but they won’t be forgotten by Murdoch or his media empire. It may take some time for them to recover their former strength, but they will be more than willing to wait in the long grass and bide their time, delivering ice cold revenge to the increasingly confident Labour leader. That’s a terrifying proposition for someone who has already been battered by a hostile media in the early months of his leadership.

Surely Ed knows this, and so do his team. He (and they) have been involved in frontline politics for long enough to know how Murdoch works. Some of them have even worked for Murdoch papers. They know exactly what he’s capable of. Despite this his staff are thought to be impressed by his aggression and tenacity in recent days. They’re right to feel pleased. This week Miliband has produced his most sustained period of real quality since he became leader.

But there’s real risk that the party in Westminster sees the momentous events of recent days as the end-game, rather than the first phase of a much longer struggle. News of the World is no more, the BSkyB takeover has been kicked into the long grass, and there are signs of weakness where there was once just invincibility. But to stop now would only allow News International to regroup – and punish Miliband, Labour and anyone else who has been emboldened to speak out against them this week.

So Ed must keep going. This is now a battle to the death between News International and Ed Miliband – and only one of them will still be standing when the dust settles. The odds are hugely stacked against him, but a week ago the odds were hugely stacked against the closure of the News of the World. Now there’s a very real possibility that the whole of News International will be sacrificed to save the BSkyB bid (after all that’s where the real money is). So Labour should start by ramping up the pressure on Murdoch on Wednesday, and call for Murdoch to withdraw his bid for BSkyB.

What is at stake now is a once in a lifetime opportunity to recalibrate the relationships between the press, the public and politics. The Murdoch press have wielded a disproportionate power for far too long. Unless Miliband and Labour can achieve the changes that redress that balance, he’ll live to regret it.

Ed has been successful this week – more than even he could have imagined – by being bold. But success in the future, and his very survival, will require him to be bolder still.