Labour Party awaits new leader announcement

[Evastar]

The Labour Party will learn who their new leader will be later as the party conference opens in Manchester.

The winner is expected to be announced at about 1640 BST on Saturday.

David and Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott are in the running to replace Gordon Brown, who quit after Labour lost the election.

Most observers believe it is too close to call between the Miliband brothers, with second and third preference votes likely to prove decisive.


But Ed Miliband was installed as favourite by some bookmakers for the first time on Friday. Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott are thought to be batting it out for third place.

An article in the Guardian suggested advisers to the two brothers had held a secret meeting to discuss what role either would play in the other's shadow cabinet, should one of them lose to the other.

David Miliband, the former foreign secretary who has long been considered the favourite to win, told the BBC he would not quit politics if he lost the contest: "I didn't run in South Shields in [the general election] in May in order to run away in September. My constituents are very important to me and I'm certainly not walking away from them."

Asked what job his brother might expect in his shadow cabinet, should he win, Mr Miliband declined to answer saying that would be "tempting fate".

Ed Miliband, on his way to the conference, told the BBC the priority was for Labour to "unite as a party and move forward and to be a credible opposition. I will do that if I am the leader."

A spokesman for Gordon Brown said the former prime minister was expected to say a few heartfelt words looking to the future before the result was announced.


Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who is backing Ed Miliband, told the BBC: "Both of the [Miliband] candidates are very, very bright. Both have total commitment.

"The Labour Party normally forms a circular firing squad after we lose a general election”

Douglas Alexander Labour MP and David Miliband supporter

"The thing that marks out Ed is an astonishing level of energy and inventiveness and also the fact that he is comfortable with people from all backgrounds and all statuses, which I believe to be an absolutely fundamental requirement for the leader of the Labour Party, the potential prime minister."

Labour MP Douglas Alexander, co-chairman of David Miliband's campaign, said his man was still the favourite, but the party would unite behind whoever wins.

"The Labour Party normally forms a circular firing squad after we lose a general election," he said. "One of the most heartening aspects is not just the civility of this campaign, but also that during it 32,000 more people have chosen to join the Labour Party."

MPs and MEPs, party members and members of trade unions and allied organisations took part in the vote.

Each of the three components counts for a third of the overall result, but with those taking part casting second, third and fourth preference ballots, it is difficult to predict the outcome.

Meanwhile, Andy Burnham has called for a change in the rules for future leadership contests, with tighter spending limits and a switch to one member one vote instead of separate sections for MPs, trade unionists and party members.

"I don't see why my vote as an MP is worth 600 times the vote of an ordinary party member. That's not how we build a mass membership party," he told The Guardian.

Harriet Harman will return to her job as the party's deputy leader once the result is announced - she has been acting leader since Mr Brown stepped down as party leader and prime minister in May.

Four of the five candidates are former cabinet ministers - Mr Balls, a close ally of former PM Mr Brown, was schools secretary, Mr Burnham was health secretary and Ed Miliband was the energy and climate change secretary.

Left-wing backbencher Miss Abbott was a late entry to the race who got onto the ballot paper only with the support of David Miliband. But she has used her history as a critic of the Iraq war and other decisions taken by the previous Labour government to differentiate herself from the other candidates.

About three million people are expected to have voted in the contest. Ballot papers are being verified and counted by the independent Electoral Reform Services.

The day after the winner is announced nominations open for the shadow cabinet, with Labour MPs voting to decide who should have a place.

Shadow cabinet candidates have until next Wednesday to put their names into the ring, with about 50 already in the running for the 19 slots up for grabs. The other members of the shadow cabinet - party leader, deputy leader, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour and the chief whip - are voted in separately.

BBC News - Labour Party awaits new leader announcement

 

[Evastar]

I'm my own man, says new Labour leader Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband has insisted Labour will not "lurch to the left" under his leadership and he will not be in thrall to the trade unions, despite winning with the backing of their members.

"I'm my own man," the new Labour leader told BBC One's Andrew Marr show.

He said he was on the centre ground of politics and rejected the nickname "Red Ed" as "rubbish".

Mr Miliband won the leader ballot by a tiny margin from brother David, and three other candidates.

Although David won a higher percentage of votes from Labour MPs, MEPs and party members - Mr Miliband's success with trade union members and affiliated societies pushed him into first place.


But he rejected claims he would take the party further to the left, telling BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I think these labels don't help, that's not the way I would see my leadership. It's not about some lurch to the left, absolutely not."

However he said he believed the party could "do more on tax" for the banks, in his first broadcast interview since becoming leader.

Asked about the threat of industrial action over the winter over planned spending cuts, he said strikes "always have to be a last resort".

But, he added, unions had an important role in society and the vast majority of union leaders were showing a "great sense of responsibility". He warned against "overblown language" and playing up the threat of strikes.

Analysis
Iain Watson Political correspondent, BBC News

The new Labour leader's immediate priority is to ditch the "Red Ed" label which he has denounced as "tiresome" and "nonsense".

It's not a description his late, Marxist father would recognise, he told Andrew Marr.

In the broadsheet of Middle England, the Sunday Telegraph, he makes the case that his so-called left wing politics would actually help modestly and reasonably paid people who are struggling.

But as well as reaching out to those who are not natural Labour voters, he also has to reach out to his narrowly defeated brother.

Supporters of David, the elder Miliband, say he hasn't made his mind up yet on whether it would help or hinder his brother to take a top job, if offered.

But it is clear that Ed is making a pitch to reunite his party by declaring this morning that the past is another country and he will use all the talents from across his party.

He will have to hope that those talents accept his olive branch and he can distance himself quickly from the impression that he is the creature of the unions.

Today he said he is his own man. His critics will say: Prove it.



Mr Miliband said his brother, who was long considered the favourite for the leadership, had shown "generosity and graciousness" in defeat but he would not be drawn on whether he would remain in front line politics.

"I think he needs time to think about the contribution he can make - I think he can make a very big contribution to British politics."

Mr Miliband, who was energy and climate change secretary in the previous government and a former aide to his predecessor as party leader Gordon Brown, promised to lead a "responsible" opposition.

He told the BBC: "I am not going to oppose every cut the government comes up with."

He agreed "some public sectors workers would have lost their jobs" if Labour had not lost the general election.

But he also suggested he would adopt a more "cautious" approach on cutting the deficit than former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling, with more emphasis on tax increases than spending cuts.

"Alistair Darling's plans are a starting point in terms of the timing of the deficit reduction. I have said I think we can do some more on tax."

He vowed to unify Labour and said the main message he wanted to get across to the party was that they must show "humility" and acknowledge the reasons why they lost the election.

He backed a graduate tax and universal welfare benefits and said Labour "hadn't got it" when it came to voters' concerns about immigration. Labour's belief that the free movement of workers around the world was an "unalloyed good thing" had failed to take into account concerns about the impact on jobs, wages and housing.

He attended a meeting of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee on Sunday morning, as the Labour Party conference gets underway in Manchester.

Mr Miliband, 40, won the leadership by just over 1% from his brother after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play.

Ed Balls was third, Andy Burnham fourth and Diane Abbott last in the ballot of MPs, members and trade unionists.

Prime Minister David Cameron called Mr Miliband from his Chequers country retreat to congratulate him on his victory.

But Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi said Mr Miliband owed his victory to votes of trade unionists and said it was now time for him to "to tell us how he'd cut the deficit".

Mr Miliband, replaces acting leader Harriet Harman in the contest triggered by the resignation of Gordon Brown.

Ms Harman told BBC One's Politics Show it was a "new chapter for Labour": "Although it was a very close election, I don't think it was a polarised election. It was a tough fought contest but it was not a divisive contest. Although he won by a whisker I think the party will unite behind Ed Miliband."

Asked about David Miliband, she said: "Although he is disappointed, I know he will step forward and play a really important part in Labour's future."

The joint leader of the Unite union, Derek Simpson, said the new leader was no "blast from the past".

"We're not extremists at all, Ed's not an extremist, he knows how to unite the party, we don't expect him to write blank cheques for us on policies - why would he and why should he?"

BBC News - I'm my own man, says new Labour leader Ed Miliband