On Wednesday 1 September the ballot to choose the next leader of the Labour Party opened and the Labour leadership battle moved into its final stages.
Despite the distraction of Blair’s memoirs, some newspapers and commentors have still found the time to declare their support for a preferred candidate, starting with our endorsement of Ed Miliband and our coverage of Jon Cruddas’s endorsement of David Miliband.
Here is a round-up of the newspaper editorials:
The Observer chose this Sunday to declare in favour of David, claiming that:
. . . there is a breadth and subtlety to David Miliband’s campaign that elevates him above his rivals. He is unquestionably loyal to the Labour tradition, but loyal also to the politics of winning general elections.
The Guardian meanwhile has chosen to sit firmly on the fence, stating that:
The truth is that both reaching out and moving on are essential, which is why neither is yet the obvious winner. In the three weeks of voting, it is to be hoped that one brother or the other will prove they can manage both at once.
The Independent has plumped for David, stating:
David Miliband has stressed repeatedly that Labour must appeal beyond the core vote if it has any chance of being a credible challenger at the election. In making this point he has not stayed in what his brother describes as a New Labour “comfort zone”. If he had done so, he would deserve to lose.
The Times (£) editorial was short and pithy, but still came out strongly for David in the end, noting:
Mr Miliband understands that Labour needs a credible line on the deficit; he has tried more than any other candidate to appeal to the electorate as a whole. He is the only candidate who commands the personal authority to be a credible prime minister and Labour can be a serious opposition only if it is seen as an alternative government. There is only one candidate who comes close to answering that description: David Miliband.
The Financial Times, despite coming out for David, has been disappointed by the leadership contest:
The quality of the leadership debate has been dispiriting. It has been too inward-looking and deferential to the core vote. The candidates have largely failed to articulate a clear vision of Britain’s future that could serve as a road map back to power.
The columnists and bloggers have shown a little more variety:
Jackie Ashley (the Guardian) strong supports Ed, but is afraid that he is too dependent on the unions:
He could become the “public-sector leader” or the “northern leader” rather than, as he wants, the leader of the “squeezed middle”.
Johann Hari declares his support for Ed as well, but adds this warning:
It’s not enough to say the debate should be solely “future oriented”. The next Labour leader will face similar decisions. What he did in the past will shape what he does in the future.
Matthew Norman (of the Independent) is strongly convinced that Ed is the man for the job and argues:
It isn’t that he speaks something far closer to English than the strangulated, triangulated patois of sonorously meaningless cliché that is his brother’s lingua franca, although that certainly helps as well.
It’s not even that he conveniently splits the difference between David’s Blair Gold tribute act and Balls’s core vote-protecting, comfort blanket statism, though that helps even more. It is simply that he had the cobblers to stand for the leadership at all, knowing that this must threaten one of the central relationships of his life.
Finally, Jonathan Freedland does as good a job as ever at sitting on the fence:
In an ideal world, there would be a combined Miliband name on the ballot, blending the strengths of both. As it is, there are two imperfect, all too human individuals. Since only one can triumph, it is incumbent on the eventual winner to take on the arguments and qualities embodied by his defeated brother. The party has been offered an either/or choice. But the truth is, it needs both.
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