Labour leadership contenders go head to head

The news from today’s Labour leadership hustings was Ed Balls saying that he thought the last Labour’s government plan to halve the deficit over the next four years was too ambitious. But the thing that struck me most about today’s event was how the entry of Diane Abbott into the race has changed its dynamic. Her crowd-pleasing answers and her styling of herself as the heart of the Labour party has made it harder for Ed Miliband to make the emotional connection with Labour audiences that was always one of his great strengths.

The candidate, though, who is in real trouble in this race is Andy Burnham. It is hard to see what the point of him is, what he is bringing to the contest. His delivery is the worst of all the candidates by some distances and there was remarkably little substance to his answers.