One of the reasons why many Labour MPs remain pessimistic about their party’s chances of winning of a majority in 2015 is that, even after a double-dip recession, Labour continues to trail the Conservatives on the economy. While the latest Guardian/ICM poll gives Labour a 12-point lead (its highest since May 2003), it also shows that more voters (29 per cent) blame the “unsustainable spending” of the last government for the slowdown than the Tories’ cuts (23 per cent).
For Labour, the concern is that such ratings are often a better long-term indicator of the election result than voting intentions. History shows that at general election time, when the opposition comes under greater scrutiny, voters usually side with the party that they view as the most economically competent. With the economy likely to return to sustained growth in 2014, the danger is that the coalition will increase its advantage in advance of 2015.
If Ed Miliband is to firmly establish himself as a prime-minister-in-waiting, he will need to improve his party’s standing in this area. I’m told that the Labour leader will make a major speech on the economy this Thursday, outlining his party’s priorities ahead of the Budget on 20 March. On the same day, Jon Cruddas, the head of Labour’s policy review, will deliver a speech on “the condition of Britain” (an echo of the book of the same name by G.D.H. Cole) to coincide with the launch of a major new IPPR project on living standards, described to me as the think-tank’s most ambitious programme since its famous Commission on Social Justice, which helped shape Labour’s 1997 manifesto.
After Cruddas warned in his Resolution Foundation speech last week that “simply opposing the cuts without an alternative is no good” (interpreted by some as a coded critique of Ed Balls), expect Miliband to say more about his vision of a remade capitalism.
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