Rachel Sylvester’s Times column has caused a stir in Labour circles this morning, with its claim that some in the party believe Ed Miliband is pursuing a “35 per cent strategy”. This would amount to securing the 29 per cent of voters who backed Labour in 2010, and adding on another six per cent of Lib Dem defectors in order to inch over the line. Dan Hodges similarly claims on his Telegraph blog: “Labour’s leader thinks that if he can convince just 35 per cent of voters to give his party the benefit of the doubt in 2015, he’ll win. Tony Blair is not alone in thinking it’s a strategy that is fundamentally flawed.”
It’s hard to reconcile this with Miliband’s aspiration to be a “one nation” prime minister and the “35 per cent” line is a fairly obvious and crude attempt to undermine his leadership. As one source close to the Labour leader told me this morning, “Aiming for 35 per cent suggests we’d settle for less, which is one of many reasons why it would be stupid to have that as our strategy.”
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