Ed Miliband needs to inspire the Labour party, not just lead it

When you read about the 20th anniversary of Tony Blair’s election as Labour leader, it is striking how many people were inspired by him back in 1997. It sounds like stating the obvious but it shouldn’t be because political inspiration is such a rare quality. Tony Blair projected strength, conviction and policies without having to spell them out. He obliterated the Conservative Party for a decade not through policy but sheer personality.

When I went to volunteer for Obama in 2008 I saw that energy first-hand too; 90 year old women baked cookies and delivered them to our office to help in any way they could. Getting people to do that for you is no easy task.

When I first wrote that Ed Miliband should be leader of the Labour party back in 2009, it was because he inspired me too. At a time when Labour was intellectually bankrupt and devoid of energy, he worked tirelessly and spoke passionately about climate change and the challenges it presented. His tireless work at Copenhagen generated the sort of admiration across party lines that is still very rare. Rather than accept defeat he visibly fought and won beyond expectations.

Even when Miliband launched his leadership bid, rejecting New Labour’s descent into illiberalism and its lazy acceptance of growing inequality, there was an energy and excitement around his insurgent campaign that simply didn’t exist with other candidates.

But somewhere along the line, Ed Miliband seems to have forgotten how to express his urgent sense of mission and change. Rather than convey it with energy and passion, he has retreated to the comfort zone of orchestrated speeches and policy announcements.

Of course, Miliband was never going to be Tony Blair. He has always hated symbolic stunts, big set pieces and Tony Blair’s Third Way Triangulation. His advisors say, quite reasonably, that he prefers policy to stunts. They also point out – quite rightly – that his policy agenda is bold and a big departure from New Labour.

But Miliband’s team also know there is a large swathe of sympathisers who are unsure of Labour because they don’t know what Miliband stands for. He doesn’t fill them with confidence. But its not clear they know how to address this problem. And compounding this problem, as Jeremy Cliffe points out, is a gloomy and mud-flinging media operation.

Whether he likes it or not, Ed Miliband needs to lead the Labour movement and inspire voters. He has to step outside the comfort zone he has increasingly retreated to since being elected leader.

If Ed Miliband wants to inspire and convince people through policy rather than personality, then he cannot afford to be timid. He has to draw a vivid and powerful picture of the future and Labour’s role in it.

But the problem is that every Labour policy announcement is piecemeal and punctuated with caveats. The radicalism is more often than not couched in abstract intellectual terms than spelt out with big, earth-shattering announcements.

The thorny issue of rail nationalisation is a prime example. The Labour leadership know it’s a vote winner and says they are willing to take big decisions to help people’s cost of living. And yet, they are intimidated into timidity by the Peter Kellner tendency who say its anti-business and won’t convince new voters. But if such signals were such vote losers why didn’t the party hurt after announcing an energy prize freeze and an overhaul of the energy market? Why not after the ‘predatory capitalism’ speech? Why not when Miliband joined the TUC anti-cuts march in March 2011?

Voters aren’t interested in whether a party is pro-business or anti-business, whether too left-wing or too right-wing – those are the parameters and frames pollsters live by. Rather, voters want to know which party can better improve their standard of living. And they want to know whether a leader has the mettle and conviction to do what he or she says. They want to see leadership.

By being timid, Ed Miliband is failing not just in communicating his plan to improve people’s lives, but that he has the conviction to do it. Its time he inspired the Labour party like he used to, not just lead it.