“Ed was wrong”: Criticising Miliband shouldn’t be off limits in the leadership debate

Ed Miliband yesterday said that it was perfectly acceptable for those to debate the Labour Party’s future to criticise him. He has to say that, really – it would come across a little odd if he deemed himself above it all.

Nevertheless, by saying it, he makes it harder for him to be criticised. He appears magnanimous and self-effacing; exactly the qualities that have endeared him so much to the party’s grassroots.

So let me take a moment to praise the former leader: he’s completely right. The leadership hopefuls should say why he was wrong. Not just the collective faults of ‘Labour’, or the mistakes that ‘we’ made – what did he get wrong?

In his comments yesterday he spoke about his “responsibility” in the defeat, and that is to his credit. Being a leader involves making decisions and taking responsibility for them, good or bad. Those who want to succeed Miliband should show that they understand that facet of leadership, and lay some blame with Ed.

The Ed Miliband ‘brand’, despite the fandoms, was one of Labour’s biggest problems under his leadership, and why that is should be explored. The leader is effectively the ambassador of the party to the wider world and, for better or worse, a large number of people decide their vote solely on who they would like to be Prime Minister. It was a measure that Miliband consistently trailed Cameron on for the duration of the parliament. When Labour MPs started anonymously raising their concerns about that last Autumn, it was the wrong way and the wrong time. Now seems the perfect opportunity to air them publicly.

His election as Labour leader signalled a big shift in positioning for the party. The party in May 2015 was radically different in many ways to the one in May 2010. His was a unique pitch in that race, and is one of the main reasons he emerged victorious. Yet it was a shift that none of the candidates in this contest signed up to; none of them voted for Miliband five years ago. Surely then, they have problems with what he proposed? Why should they not be honest and tell us what those problems are?

At the moment, the activist base appears assiduously pro-Miliband. Praise for the defeated leader is greeted warmly at hustings. But the public had very real reservations about him, and acknowledging that might just be a helpful step forward towards where the voters are.

No one wants to see a return to the depressing open season on Ed Miliband, which we saw from so much of the right wing press in the run-up to the election. I am not suggesting that ad hominem attacks about the way the eats a bacon butty are helpful or desirable. But he was leader, and he made mistakes.

If this is the proper debate we keep telling ourselves we need, it should not be off limits to say: “Ed was wrong.”