Morning Report – July 5th

At a very simple level, every election win is based on knocking on doors, so Labour in Scotland have gone back to campaigning basics. From now on all councillors and candidates north of the border will be told to sign a contract(£) committing them to a set amount of work and meetings, with disciplinary action to be taken if the contract is ignored. It’s good to see campaigning best practive being applied, but also worrying that this is even neccessary – many CLPs across the country have been doing this for years already.

The Independent today suggest that Ed Miliband is “running out of time” to secure an election win. That’s Ed Miliband who was elected as Labour leader less than a year ago remember. But seemingly he’s already in trouble if you compare all recent opposition leaders (except Thatcher, and she wasn’t successful at all, was she?).

Latet today the PLP will vote on Ed Miliband’s proposals to abolish shadow cabinet elections – something which they voted in favour of keeping less than a year ago. It seems highly unlikely that the PLP would vote against Ed’s wishes, but it would be a blow to his leadership if he were to lose the vote. We’ll bring you the result as soon as it’s announced.

Outside of the party, today’s main news is of course the latest shocking phone hacking revelations. The Times reveals(£) that Milly Dowler’s family are planning to sue the News of the World, meanwhile Ian Burrell in the Independent says that Rebekah Brooks has “some explaining to do”. That seems like a huge understatement. And Cameron will be squirming too – after all he kept her in a job.