There was a time when few expected Ed Miliband to run for the Labour leadership, let alone win it. But here at the NS, we can claim to have been more prescient than most. As the screengrab below shows, we identified Ed as “Labour’s next leader” as early as 25 January.
Before that, in December 2008, our political correspondent, James Macintyre, wrote in his end-of-year-predictions that Miliband would “emerge as the up-and-coming politician of 2009 and come to be regarded as Brown’s natural successor”.
We went on to become almost the only mainstream publication (the one exception being the People) to endorse Ed’s leadership bid. Our leader said:
[I]t is Ed Miliband who has been most prepared to challenge New Labour orthodoxies, to use a different kind of language. He advocates a Labour agenda that is confident, forceful and empowering, committed to greater freedom, social justice and, above all else, reducing inequality.
He now faces a hostile right-wing media and a Conservative Party determined to portray him as a union shoo-in. But, as his energetic and inspiring campaign demonstrated, he has the spirit necessary to lead a renewed Labour Party back into government.
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