As Ed Miliband’s allies recover from the disappointment of his failure to become prime minister, they are throwing their support behind Andy Burnham as the best candidate to succeed him as leader. Lucy Powell, Miliband’s former deputy chief of staff, who served as vice chair of Labour’s election campaign, will endorse him, according to sources. Neil Kinnock, who backed Miliband in 2010, is also expected to support Burnham. The former Labour leader patted the shadow health secretary on the back and spoke warmly to him outside Monday night’s PLP meeting.
Burnham has already won the support of Rachel Reeves, Owen Smith, Luciana Berger and Ian Lavery, who endorsed Miliband in 2010, and is in line to win the Unite nomination (as Miliband did). It is partly this crossover of support that has led some in the party to describe Burnham as a “prettier Miliband”. But the shadow health secretary has sought to dispel this impression by rejecting the mansion tax as “symbolism” and “the politics of envy”, and by arguing that Labour should have run a budget surplus before the financial crash. One member of the Miliband circle who is not backing Burnham, however, is Jon Trickett. The shadow cabinet member, who was a senior adviser to the former Labour leader, told me that he still wanted to see a “left candidate” make the ballot.
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