The Loneliness of the Long Distance Leader

That’s it. Enough is enough. I try to be reasonable. But you can only push somebody so far. It’s time to sort this out once and for all.

I am fed up with this huge and growing army of sycophants and cheerleaders constantly bigging up Ed Miliband, and making helpful or supportive interventions on his behalf. The list is endless. Let’s shine a spotlight on the guilty men and women. There’s… well, there’s… er… you know… er… thingy… on a good day… occasionally.

The morning after a good night in Westminster for Labour might seem an odd moment to complain about the lack of support the Labour leadership is enjoying. But, in spite of some fresh plaudits, and excitement over one extraordinary poll finding, the big gap where colleagues ought to be standing, and speaking up, is a problem.

The leadership feels, I think, just a little bit lonely, and short of friends. So much of the political “heavy lifting” has to be done by the Eds, with not enough members of the shadow cabinet making a significant impact on the public. Precious few lobby correspondents, newspaper columnists or media commentators are ready to acknowledge what seems to be the most likely outcome of the next general election: Labour back in office, albeit in coalition, led by prime minister Ed Miliband.

Compare this with the situation back in the mid 90s, when the momentum behind New Labour was so formidable. Tony Blair was supported pretty energetically by a range of senior party figures who were eager to speak up for him. Many columnists and commentators were enthusiastic. Sure, it helped Labour’s cause to be up against a Conservative government that had been in office for nearly two decades, and which was clearly imploding. But the benefit of the doubt was with Labour.

Now think about the mood today. Praise for Miliband’s leadership is pretty rare. Even when he picks the right issue – for example, accident and emergency services at PMQs a month ago – and even when his critique is shown to be accurate and well-timed, the lobby’s response is lukewarm. On April 24 Miliband said: “A and E is the barometer of the NHS, and this prime minister might be totally out of touch, but that barometer is telling us it is a system in distress.” At the end of last week the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, admitted that A and E services are indeed in a state of crisis, with an urgent requirement to recruit a lot more staff. But go back to PMQs a month ago and see how it was reported. With the single word “Stafford” the prime minister was portrayed as having pulled off a bold debating triumph. He got positive write-ups. And Miliband’s good and important question was marked down as a missed opportunity.

Perhaps the mood is about to change. Ukip looks set to score well in opinion polls for the time being, and is being spoken of as a likely winner of the European elections next year. This will undermine Conservative support, and David Cameron’s position, further. If Labour’s poll rating remains safely above 35%, and if the gap between Lab and Con stays at 8 percentage points or more, more people will start to believe in the prospect of a Labour victory. The tone of newspaper columns will improve. More shadow cabinet figures will come forward, speak up with greater confidence, and look and sound more like cabinet ministers in waiting.

That’s quite a lot of ifs. British politics is pretty volatile at the moment, and hard to predict. But one thing at least should be less uncertain: the levels of support, from his own side, for the Labour leader. The departure of David Miliband for the US should have finally convinced those who still cannot quite believe he lost the leadership election that that issue has been settled. Ed is different from his brother, and doing the job his way. He has been an effective critic of the government, and has begun to set out what Labour’s alternative would look like. He has led the party back from a massive defeat, only three years ago, to the brink of power. He is doing much better than many would have you believe. But a leader needs support.

You know – I think he might actually deserve it.