Ed miliband

Is the #ToriesForCorbyn campaign politics at its most infantile? As one of the few conservative commentators willing to defend it in the media, I’ve been doing my best to rebut that charge. The most frequent line of attack is that there’s something dishonest about it. The Labour leadership election isn’t an open primary. It’s restricted to members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters. OK, you can register as a supporter for £3 — a change brought in by Ed Miliband to reduce union influence — but only if you pretend to be a Labour sympathiser. And that’s just wrong. The short answer to this is that no such pretence is necessary

Last week David Miliband flew all the way from America to Britain to celebrate his birthday. However, the former New Labour sweetheart made sure not to invite his brother Ed Miliband to the celebrations that just happened to be being held close to where his sibling resided. With the party over and his brotherly snub widely noted by the media, it’s time for David to bid Britain farewell. A snapper has spied Miliband sitting comfortably on a plane out of the country. That seat doesn’t look like economy to Mr S.

The Budget contained little economic analysis of George Osborne’s sensational plan for a £9 minimum wage for the over-25s. Of course, it’s not driven by economics: the main objective is to destabilise the Labour Party. So far, the policy is being defended by Tories using rather flimsy logic: business moaned when Tony Blair introduced the minimum wage, but did that create mass unemployment? Eh, no. So we can ignore those who moan now; they’ll come around. But, alas, things are a little more complicated than that. The OBR has already broken the news the Living Wage helps richest households almost twice as much as poorer ones, because so many minimum wage workers are the spouses of high earners.

With the under-25s seen to be the losers in George Osborne’s Budget yesterday, it seems Labour have found an audience they might actually be able to win over. Bring on the youth. Ed Miliband tried to relive his glory days in Parliament this lunchtime as he met with a throng of school girls representing the Milifandom: Right now in PCH @Ed_Miliband is assembling some kind of #Milifandom zombie army. Run for your lives! pic.twitter.com/KyRlHwK09i — Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) July 9, 2015 He's briefing the #Milifandom. This could turn ugly at any moment. WHERE THE F### IS SECURITY? pic.twitter.com/poC1GPI68x — Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) July 9, 2015 Not wanting to be outdone, future

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/spectatorpolitics/summerbudget2015/media.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the Summer Budget”] Listen [/audioplayer]The morning after the election, Ed Miliband said that his party had lost the election but won the argument. He was mocked for this observation but surveying Osborne’s summer budget, he may have a point. It was cleverly spun: the tax-cut for Middle England trumpeted this morning has turned out to be a run-of-the-mill 1.2pc revision to the 40p threshold, not even in line with earnings. Clever old George. In fact, the first all-Conservative Budget for a generation has seen the Chancellor accept many of Labour’s arguments, moving to the left with a tax-and-spend budget and putting his tanks on the

Ed Miliband – remember him? – has just told the House of Commons that the government’s proposals for so-called English votes for English laws (EVEL) are a betrayal of everything for which the Conservative party is supposed to stand. Well, that’s certainly one way of putting it. According to Miliband, EVEL is “not true to the great traditions of the Conservative and Unionist party” but since the foremost of those traditions is a keen and ruthless appreciation of the best interests of the Conservative party I suspect Miliband, not for the first time, misunderstands the Tory party. “You’re the Conservative and Unionist party”, Miliband said. “This is neither for Conservatism nor

Ed Miliband was praised for his integrity by George Osborne after he returned to the Commons and gave a speech so soon after his election defeat. Although the Conservatives have been happy to pile on the praise towards their old foe, Mr S suspects their enthusiasm will begin to wear thin by the end of the week. The former Labour leader is to dip his toe back into frontline politics by leading a commons debate tomorrow on Hatfield Colliery, the Doncaster coal mine which is closing this week leading to the loss of 430 jobs. Judging by Miliband comments so far on the mine’s early closure, the Tories will be in for a rough

After anti-austerity protesters turned on Russell Brand for endorsing Labour at a protest on Saturday, it was only a matter of time til Ed Miliband faced a similar backlash over his party’s defeat. Alas for Miliband, his takes musical form. Sleaford Mods – the working class mod band – have attacked the former Labour leader in their new album, with the song In Quiet Streets: ‘Miliband got hit with the ugly stick, not that it matters. The chirping c–t obviously wants the country in tatters’ Boris Johnson is also in their firing line with the song Rupert Trousers inspired by his speech at last year’s party conference, where he used a brick to demonstrate

These are dark days for the Labour party, following their brutal election defeat and the recent turmoil within the party. For Miliband in particular, the pain of the past few months must be particularly acute. Still, there’s at least one area of politics he can draw comfort from: Milifandom. Abby Tomlinson, the founder of the cult movement, has today met her idol at the Palace of Westminster. There’s life in the movement yet, it seems: https://twitter.com/twcuddleston/status/614044576488247296/photo/1 Currently having lunch with the brilliant founder of #milifandom @twcuddleston to say thanks for starting something so highly improbable… — Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) June 25, 2015 Tomlinson became quite a star during the election, following a spat with Louise

Ed Miliband is clearly struggling to find his place in a post Ed Miliband world. Despite MPs from his own party suggesting the former Labour leader was ‘hanging around like an awkward relative at a funeral’, Miliband has not shied away from Westminster. Given the comprehensive thumping Ed took at the ballot box, he took a bold decision today to take to Twitter to slam the Prime Minister – remember that guy who beat him last month. A brave decision, if not a wise one. The response was quick and ruthless, and you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh: https://twitter.com/DJYems/status/612985229507198976 https://twitter.com/Chav68898982/status/612985260511526912 https://twitter.com/mephistofish/status/612982532448079872 @Ed_Miliband Remind us again how

Ed Miliband believed that after the financial crisis, Britain had moved to the left. He argued that there was no need to adopt all the Blairite positions to win. The election result appears to have disproved that thesis. But, as Andy Grice argues in his column today, Blairite is still being chucked around as the insult of choice in this Labour leadership contest. As Grice points out, Labour particularly need the Blair agenda’s ability to connect with English swing voters now given what has happened in Scotland. In a world in which the swing required for Labour to win Midlothian is larger than to take Kensington, Labour will have to

The clock struck noon and it was if the past 32 years had never happened. Veteran Left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn had, with seconds to spare, got the necessary 35 nominations to win his place on the Labour leadership ballot. And with that news, it became clear that the Labour party has not just failed to learn the lessons of last month’s election failure; they are still too busy ignoring the lessons of 1983. In that year, one of the party’s most traumatic defeats in its history, the British people voted en masse to reject Michael Foot and his socialist manifesto – famously dubbed ‘the longest suicide note in history’. Today,

Patrick Wintour is one of the best political editors around. For the Guardian he’s been for decades a cool and well-sourced voice: even-handed, informed, interesting but in the best sense dry. So when I heard he’d written the most comprehensive behind-the-scenes account yet of Labour’s failed general election campaign I hurried to read it. I was not disappointed. ‘The undoing of Ed Miliband, and how Labour lost the election’ is an insider account of a chapter of accidents, starting with Mr Miliband’s memory lapse about the deficit during Labour’s last party conference. Apparently he shut himself in his hotel room afterwards and wouldn’t come out. The story takes us through to