Ed miliband

Ed Miliband’s popularity ratings have sunk below those of Nick Clegg this week, so what can Labour do? In this week’s View from 22 podcast, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the Miliband problem —we’ve put together the video highlights above. Will Labour contemplate sacking him? Is there anyone else who could do a better job? And will the upcoming shadow cabinet reshuffle improve his standing? You can listen to the full discussion on the podcast tomorrow morning. Subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week.

Judging by the tone of the commentary at the moment, you would think that Labour were badly behind in the polls. In fact, they are ahead by a few points—a margin that would still give Miliband a majority. But what should worry the Labour leader most is that every time the Labour machine is put under scrutiny it is found wanting. Tom Watson, in an intervention that will further worry leadership loyalists, has been out and about making this point this morning. Last month’s election campaign when Miliband didn’t know the name of the candidate he was campaigning for in Swindon was all too typical of Labour’s failings.

Ed Miliband appears to have had a sudden change of heart about The Sun. After calling for Rupert Murdoch's empire to be dismantled, the Labour leader has endorsed The Sun's World Cup special today. Not all of his colleagues feel the same way — many of them have been tweeting critical remarks about the paper. Here's a selection: The shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle: Bill Esterson, the Labour MP for Blundellsands: https://twitter.com/BillEstersonMP/statuses/477073824794419201 Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central: https://twitter.com/TheSunNewspaper Madeleine Moon, the Labour MP for Bridgend: https://twitter.

Labour’s failure to offer a credible economic alternative to the Tories is going hurt them in next year’s election, according to Charles Clarke. The former Labour Education and Home Secretary proved to be a ray of sunshine on the Daily Politics today, arguing that Ed Miliband has failed to explain to voters why the Labour’s alternative plan for the economy is the right one. When asked whether the Conservatives’ strategy is cogent, Clarke said: ‘It's very cogent. I don't think it's true, myself, as a matter of fact. I think Labour has a much better story to tell about the last government and the economy than is widely believed. But I think, as you put it, you're completely correct. The Conservatives have put this story across.

Jim Waterson's BuzzFeed interview with Ed Miliband is well worth a read. But the opening paragraph stands out in particular: 'Ed Miliband was in Nottingham last Tuesday when a man approached him to say that his part-time job at a petrol station wasn’t paying enough to take care of two children. This is an anecdote of the sort Miliband is always telling in his campaign to lower Britain’s cost of living, but what the man said next was “chilling.” '“He was really, really desperate because he felt couldn’t properly provide for his family,” Miliband recalls. “He was thinking of ending it all because he just couldn’t make ends meet.” '“Suddenly bacon sandwiches look slightly beside the point,” Miliband says.

Tax Freedom Day, which falls today, is cause for celebration. It marks the point in the calendar when someone's income stops paying for their tax bill and they start keeping the money they have earned. It is an annual reminder that people who work hard and play by the rules deserve to keep their hard won earnings. It is why cutting tax has always been a priority for Conservatives. Four years ago we inherited a tax system that was designed to be as complicated as possible. Gordon Brown's stealth taxes doubled the revenue the Treasury raised through taxation and National Insurance. In total, Labour put up taxes 178 times, and the myriad of extra charges was as complicated as the methods used by corporate tax avoiders today - and as morally compromising.