Uk politics

Ed Miliband has a speech billed as his make-or-break fightback proof-I'd-make-a-great-PM tomorrow morning. In truth, it's rarely right to bill one political speech as The fightback, at least in voters' minds, but the Labour leader does need to show that he hasn't been crushed by the past few weeks - and reassure his party sufficiently for them to fight with him. His speech will be followed by 'interventions' from Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna and Tristram Hunt in the next few days.

I spent an hour today following David Cameron around a school in Rochester as part of his latest campaign visit in the by-election. The school, Strood Academy, was candidate Kelly Tolhurst's alma mater, and has the benefit of being in a snazzy building, which looks nice for photos. The children in the school were obviously thrilled that the Prime Minister was there: they didn't know until he appeared on the premises and as he walked into a citizenship class, all the students' eyes widened with surprise. He was mobbed as he walked through the building, with children turning to each other shouting 'I shook his hand! I've got to tell my mum this!' This was all very nice, but there is one slightly odd detail about this by-election visit.

So Labour lost its vote delaying the vote on the European Arrest Warrant that wasn't technically a vote on that measure anyway. The first vote, that the question not be put today so that Parliament could have a full debate and vote another day, was lost, with 272 MPs voting 'no' with the government and 229 voting with Labour. There had been a big debate on the Tory backbenches about the best tactic, with MPs angry about the government's behaviour split over whether to vote with Labour or abstain. This meant that Labour lost the vote.

Well, the Labour party certainly knows how to give the appearance of a fight when its back is against the wall. Many MPs and supporters have spent quite a lot of this fine autumn day tweeting frantically that this morning's unpleasant headlines (summarised in their full gory glory by James here) are a plot by the media to stop their thoroughly decent leader making it to Downing Street and why aren't we all writing about the problems that David Cameron has with the Conservative party instead? They protest too much: if lobby journalists were organised enough to compile time sheets, most of us would quite clearly have spent the bulk of our time since the 2010 election writing about Tory misery, not Labour.

Is the latest Labour leadership crisis actually triggering new wave of party unity? Lord Prescott, who has slammed Miliband as ‘timid’ for his ‘complacent’ leadership style, spotted John McTernan, Tony Blair’s former political secretary turned columnist, in the reception of the BBC after they had both been on the airwaves to discuss the party’s dire straits. 'I remember when we used to disagree about things' called out Prezza. And it’s not just sparring partners in his own party who Ed is bringing together. At last some common ground has been found between Ukip and the Tories. 'He's the best thing going for absolutely everyone right now,' one Ukip spin doctor said of Ed Miliband.