We are, in all likelihood, only days away from a full-blown, out-in-the-open Labour leadership contest. In which case, the odds that Ladbrokes have just fired out are worth a passing
glance. Underneath the news that the Tories are now odds-on to form a majority government, they’ve got this list:
The thing that strikes me is Ed Balls’s relatively low position – behind both Alistair Darling and Peter Mandelson, as well as some of the more usual suspects. So what’s happened to the straight Balls and Miliband scrap that folk expected a few months ago? Well, I imagine Balls’s fading star is down to a combination of Anthony Calvert’s smartNext permanent Labour leader David Miliband 7/4 Ed Miliband 5/1 Alan Johnson 6/1 Harriet Harman 8/1 Peter Mandelson 10/1 Alistair Darling 12/1 Ed Balls 14/1 Jon Cruddas 14/1 Jack Straw 25/1 John Denham 25/1 Andy Burnham 25/1 Hilary Benn 33/1 Yvette Cooper 33/1
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