Ed miliband

Poor old Ed Miliband. The former Labour leader was once convinced he was destined for Downing Street. Now, he’s hosting discussions about toilets on Radio 2. Standing in for Jeremy Vine, Miliband introduced music, chatted politics – and talked to guests about what types of loos they have. The Labour MP even asked one guest to flush their WC to hear what it sounded like. But Mr S was worried things hit something of a bum note for Ed when he had to remind one guest to ‘be tactful’ as he discussed trying to clean his toilet: ‘We’re talking loos and you’ve been getting in touch with us…Nicola Richards from Loughborough says ‘As a mum, I have to

Since the election, Jeremy Corbyn has been parading himself as prime-minister-in-waiting. ‘Cancellation of President Trump’s State Visit is welcome,’ he tweeted this week, ‘especially after his attack on London’s Mayor and withdrawal from #ParisClimateDeal.’ The message was clear: unlike ‘Theresa the appeaser’, Jeremy is willing and able to tell that climate change-denying Islamophobe across the water to get stuffed. Jez we can, Jez we can. There may be another reason why Corbyn is glad to think that Trump might not come to these shores, and that’s because the more the British see of the dreaded Donald, the more they might recognise how much he and the Labour leader have in

John Stuart Mill is usually credited as the person who first called the Conservatives ‘the stupid party’, but that isn’t quite accurate. Rather, he referred to the Tories as the stupidest party, and he didn’t mean that it was more stupid than every other party in the country, just the Liberals. If you substitute the Lib Dems for the Liberal party, that probably isn’t true any more, and it certainly isn’t true if you include Labour in the mix. No, I think there is now a strong case for passing the crown to Jeremy Corbyn’s party. If you look at Labour’s leaders, this is a very recent development. Harold Wilson

Never has the Conservative party been more confident about winning a general election. Theresa May’s popularity ratings have broken all records; her aim in this campaign is not just to defeat the Labour party but to destroy it. The Tory MPs who talk about ten years in power are the more cautious ones; some talk about staying in government until the 2040s. The party’s name is seldom mentioned in this campaign. We instead hear only about ‘Theresa May’s team’, and voters seem to approve. As to what the Conservatives stand for, they’d rather not say. At times it seems they’re not even quite sure. The Tory messages revolve around Jeremy

Is capping domestic energy prices an equitable way to help the ‘just about managing’, or an electoral gimmick with a whiff of anti-free-market ideology? When it was Ed Miliband’s idea, it was certainly the latter. Now it’s likely to be included in Theresa May’s manifesto, offering a potential £100 saving for millions of homes on ‘standard variable tariffs’, it is defended by the ever-plausible Sir Michael Fallon as a matter of ‘intervening to make markets work better’. And that, after all, is what the Prime Minister said she would do, wherever necessary, in the interests of fairness. In a regulated market, within which the consumer’s ability to choose the most

This election was won two days before it was announced, on Easter Sunday. Theresa May put out an Easter message in which she suggested that British values had a Christian basis. It was her version of David Cameron’s message two years before, in which he said that Britain is a Christian country. She was rather more convincing. I don’t know whether Cameron is sincerely religious, but he didn’t seem it. He didn’t even seem to try very hard to seem it, as if fearing that his metropolitan support might weaken, and perhaps that George Osborne would make a snarky jibe about it at cabinet. But it still did him good

When a shell-shocked Ed Miliband stepped down as Labour leader following the party’s defeat in the 2015 election, he concluded his speech by saying that: ‘The course of progress and social justice is never simple or straightforward. Change happens because people don’t give up, they don’t take no for an answer, they keep demanding change’ The change that party members demanded from the blank slate of Labour’s election defeat turned out to be Jeremy Corbyn; and Miliband slunk back to Doncaster to not ‘take no for an answer’ – from the scenic climes of the backbenches. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Last week, I voiced my frustration that Miliband was appearing

I really liked Ed Miliband. I thought he would make a great Prime Minister. He was wide-eyed and striving, the less hip or handsome of the Miliband brothers, but undeniably a fine man. In recent months, however, he has tried to shed that image. He now wants to seem cool. This morning, for example, Miliband responded to the Daily Mail’s controversial ‘Legs-it’ cover by tweeting ‘The 1950s called and asked for their headline back’. He then proceeded to engage in a back-and-forth with James Blunt (another of Twitter’s surprise rehabilitations) who wrote ‘It’s been such a pleasure guest-editing @Ed_Miliband’s Twitter page these last couple of weeks.’ Miliband then delivered the exchange’s coup de grace, slaying

As part of Labour’s last-ditch effort to hold onto Stoke-on-Trent Central in Thursday’s by-election, Ed Miliband headed north on Monday to help the party’s candidate Gareth Snell campaign. Although Snell has made a number of questionable comments about women on Twitter, the former Labour leader didn’t seem to mind as he posed for pictures on the campaign trail. Fantastic to welcome @Ed_Miliband and @SKinnock to #StokeCentral today -huge thanks to them & the huge number of volunteers here again today pic.twitter.com/VWo0Q3lRRh — Gareth Snell (@gareth_snell) February 20, 2017 Only Mr S can’t help but wonder if Snell was being genuine when he said it was ‘fantastic’ to welcome Miliband to his

Even when Ed Miliband was Labour leader, it was his brother who made the greatest impression across the pond. While Hillary Clinton waxed lyrical about David Miliband, Ed was never able to make waves in America. So, there’s good news at last for the former Labour leader. Miliband won a primetime spot during a news bulletin from NBC. Alas, there is a catch – his photo was used as a stock picture for an item on the flu: https://twitter.com/elenacresci/status/810847595618766848 Well, they do say all publicity is good publicity…

In last week’s Autumn statement, Philip Hammond appeared to channel his inner Ed Miliband as he banned letting fees and went on a borrowing splurge. Today at Treasury questions, it was Labour’s turn to cross-dress. After John McDonnell sparked much laughter from Tory benches by referring to Mark Field’s chief of staff — behind yesterday’s so-called Brexit leak — as a senior government official, his shadow chief secretary went on to press Hammond to make a guarantee — as Labour are — that he would keep the triple lock throughout the next parliament. While the pension triple lock — introduced by the coalition — was something George Osborne championed throughout his tenure as

When I made my Dispatches documentary about generational inequality for Channel 4, I was struck by how many of the established facts in this debate fell apart upon scrutiny. Yes, there are many legitimate grievances – which I covered in the film. But some of the supposed ‘nationwide’ problems are, in fact, no such thing. Take the national rent crisis, which led Ed Miliband to fight an election campaign which pitted the supposedly wicked exploitative landlords against tenants. He lost that election, in part because he had allowed himself to be sucked down rabbit hole of social media – and one of Londoncentricity. There are a great many problems facing people

David Davis batted away demands for parliament to be given a vote on the timing of Article 50 or the government’s negotiating stance. Whenever his opponents—who included Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg—brought up how Davis himself had previously said there should be a white paper on the government’s negotiating stance, Davis side-stepped the issue. He also claimed that his views on how the executive should be accountable to parliament hadn’t changed, but that there was a difference between scrutiny and micro-managing. What the government wanted out of the Brexit talks, said Davis, was control of the UK’s borders and laws, co-operation on justice and security matters that is at least

Jeremy Corbyn’s second leader’s speech was much better than his first. One has to beware the soft bigotry of low expectations when judging his performance as leader of the opposition. But, it’s fair to say that Corbyn’s speech was up there with some of Ed Miliband’s off year efforts. The delivery was much improved, there was a joke or two and some canny lines. Corbyn cleverly made the moderates an offer they’ll struggle to refuse, saying that the one thing everyone in Labour agreed on was that a divided party would not persuade the public. So, he asked them, ‘accept the decision of the members, end the trench warfare and

Jeremy Corbyn promised to wipe the slate clean following Labour’s fractious leadership race. Now that he’s officially clinched victory, it’s time for the party to try and do just that at Labour’s annual conference, which kicks off at 11am today. Here, The Spectator has put together a guide of the main events to look out for. This is what’s on today: 11am: Labour’s conference starts The NEC’s chair Paddy Lillis speaks shortly afterwards Fringe events: 5.30pm: The Big Debate: Labour and the economy in Brexit Britain Speakers include: Chuka Umunna; Ed Miliband; Lisa Nandy; Rachel Reeves 6pm: Stop Trident Fringe Meeting Speakers include: Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the CND; John McDonnell; Diane Abbott 6pm:

Poor Ed Miliband. Since his defeat in the General Election, the former Labour leader has seen his influence fade — dropping to number 40 in this year’s Doncaster Power list. Now it seems some are struggling to even remember his name. On last night’s Question Time, Red Ed was mistaken for his brother David Miliband twice by his fellow panel member Dreda Say Mitchell. The Brexit-backing novelist mistook him for Labour’s prince across the water while discussing the EU: DM: Are we saying David, as a country we are the fifth largest economy EM: It’s Ed, actually DM: Sorry, Ed Alas Mitchell failed to learn her lesson and went on to refer to him as

Just over a year ago, Ed Miliband had the world at his feet. The MP for Doncaster North was one of the most powerful men in the country — hoping to lead Labour to victory in the General Election. One lost election later and a lot has changed for Red Ed. Now a backbencher, Miliband doesn’t appear to hold much sway anymore — even in his constituency. Miliband has dropped from number four to number 40 in the Doncaster ‘Power List‘ which lists the 50 most influential movers and shakers in the area. At number 40, Miliband can at least take heart that he has been deemed more influential than Radio Sheffield’s

Hell, I wait so long to be right about something and then two bits of stuff come along at once. Nine months ago I said Sadiq Khan would become London’s mayor – partly because he was a very good candidate and a likeable bloke – but more because London is one of the world’s most leftie liberal constituencies. Which should tell you about Boris’s campaigning abilities, no? I also suggested that Labour would do better in the local elections than commentators – and desperate PLP recusants – were predicting. They did. In London, Corbyn is an actual asset to Labour. Beyond the vile metropolis, he is no more of a yoke