Prescott slams Miliband’s “core vote strategy”

John Prescott has used his Sunday Mirror column tomorrow to vent his displeasure with Labour’s election strategy, accusing the leadership of being “too timid” with its ambition and relying upon “a core vote strategy”. In an uncompromising article, the former Deputy Prime Minister says that he fears the Shadow Chancellor is holding back new policies:

“Labour’s approach is far too timid. I fear Shadow Cabinet ministers aren’t delivering new policies because Ed Balls won’t approve them if they involve spending commitments.”

The Labour peer says that although we are “seemingly heading to victory”, the Manchester conference “atmosphere was flat” because Ed Miliband is not attempting to reach out across the country in the way New Labour did in the 1990s:

“We recognised the need to build broad support across the country, not just in our Labour heartlands of the North and London. That’s how we got a landslide.

But Ed seems to be pursuing a core vote strategy of getting 31 per cent of traditional Labour supporters with a few ex-Lib Dem voters.

He might as well have said at the end of his conference speech: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for coalition.””

This intervention will come as bad news for Miliband – Prescott is often viewed as a tireless Labour tribalist and to attack a leader in public is an unusual move for him. He is often relied on to provide a rallying cry for activists, so the question many at the Labour Party HQ will be asking themselves over the weekend is: if he’s not up for the fight, then who is?

He does, however, leave Miliband with a piece of advice:

“Ditch the pollsters, the focus groups and US-style politics. Be bold, be brave and let’s go all out for the win.”

Unfortunately, being “bold” and “brave” is the kind of advice Ed Miliband has received a lot over the past couple of years, from many different people. They can’t all mean the same thing.