One of the errors in the leaked list ranking Labour MPs by favourability to Jeremy Corbyn was the inclusion of Ed Miliband in the “negative” category. Most in the party believe the former leader is better described as sympathetic to his successor. In recent interviews he has defended his leadership more robustly than many shadow cabinet members and has offered him private advice.
Last year I reported on speculation that Miliband could return to the shadow cabinet (a rumour heard again this week). Those close to the former leader continue to dismiss the possibility but he will appear with Corbyn today at a pro-EU climate change rally in Doncaster – the first time the pair have shared a platform. “Ed’s more engaged than he’s been for a long time,” a friend told me.
Though Miliband did not vote for Corbyn in last year’s leadership election (sources say he backed Andy Burnham), there is notable continuity between their political projects. In interviews with me, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Momentum chair Jon Lansman have spoken of how the former leader created crucial intellectual and political space for the left. Those on the party’s right make the same point – if rather less positively. A former shadow cabinet member told me that “the left of the party was indulged for five years and wasn’t challenged”.
It was under Miliband that Labour first identified as an “anti-austerity” party, with the then leader addressing a 2011 anti-cuts march. Though this stance was later abandoned, as emphasis was put on the need for public spending reductions (with room left to borrow for investment), it provided Corbyn with an opening to exploit.
It was also Miliband who denounced the Iraq war and promised a new approach to foreign policy, declaring in his 2010 conference speech: “Our alliance with America is incredibly important to us but we must always remember that our values must shape the alliances that we form and any military action that we take.” His refusal to support the government’s proposed intervention in Syria in 2013 was hailed by him as preventing a “rush to war”. By promising “a different kind of foreign policy – based on a new and more independent relationship with the rest of the world”, and opposing all recent military actions, Corbyn has travelled further down a road taken by Miliband.
The Labour leader’s promise to give greater power to party members similarly follows Miliband’s decision to give them the ultimate say over the leadership (the system that enabled Corbyn’s victory). Rail renationalisation, limits on media ownership and opposition to privatisation were also stances either fully or partly embraced between 2010 and 2015.
Many of those who voted for Corbyn backed Miliband in 2010 or joined after being attracted by his radical moments. For them, Corbyn, the only candidate to position himself to Miliband’s left from the outset of the contest, was his natural successor. It was these left-leaning members, not Trotskyist entryists, who enabled his landslide victory.
The continuity extends to personnel as well as policy. Simon Fletcher, Corbyn’s director of campaigns and planning (formerly chief of staff), was Miliband’s trade union liaison officer, while Jon Trickett, the shadow communities secretary (and key Corbyn ally), was a senior adviser. If Miliband is more open to the Labour leader’s project than many other MPs, it may be because he recognises how much it has in common with his own.
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