Miliband resisting calls for full nationalisation of the railways

Ed Miliband is resisting pressure from trade unions to support renationalising the rail industry. Both the Financial Times (£) and Independent have stories this morning about the Labour leadership moving to adopt a policy whereby both the state and private sectors can bid for franchises as the contracts run out – as LabourList reported earlier this month.

The reports suggest that Miliband could be seeking to announce his intentions when rail policy is discussed at Labour’s major National Policy Forum (NPF) meeting this weekend. However, he could run into trouble: lobbying from trade unions and members to automatically bring franchises back into state ownership when the current contracts expire has been previously been met with positive reactions from Labour insiders. That Labour now look prepared to offer a different policy will be met with disappointment in many quarters.

Not least with LabourList readers, who only last week chose automatic renationalisation as franchises expire as their preferred policy – beating the proposed new policy 60% to 22%.

It is, however, welcome news that today’s stories suggest the leadership will at least be putting it to members at the NPF conference. When this policy first appeared several weeks ago, it looked likely that it might be announced pre-conference, in an attempt to head off debate on the topic.