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| Miliband recieved a PMQs bashing from Cameron on Wednesday. |
A polished PMQs put down from David Cameron this week seems genuinely to have captured an atmosphere of disappointment, surrounding Ed Miliband’s hitherto performance as opposition leader. Brutally responding to a lame Miliband slur, Cameron gleefully reported that after three months in the job, “people are beginning to ask, ‘When is he going to start?’” On the whole, Ed looked convincingly out of his depth and ineffective at the dispatch box. However, this seems a verdict increasingly being applied to his overall performance as Labour leader since his September inauguration.
Several things haven’t helped Miliband. An alien like face, similarly odd voice and a common view that he back stabbed his brother make it hard for a start. Yet, despite such uncontrollable factors, he seems to have made several tactical errors which have worked to his detriment. A two week absence on paternity leave so early in his tenure has possibly had the simple effect of giving the public an extra two weeks to forget who he is. In fact, one senior Labour party member described his choice of leave as “politically correct, but not correct politically.” Crucially, he also still remains without a chief press officer and the assistance of his campaign manager from the leadership election, after both recently resigned. Undoubtedly this lack of a media savvy, intelligent, cunning aide has cost him quality advice and coaching for public appearances, and it shows. At the moment, preparing for PMQs he is reliant on the help of two inexperienced Labour MPs, who it can safely be said have actually been more of a hindrance. One strategic choice Ed is bound already to be having second thoughts over is making Alan Johnson his shadow chancellor. Johnson has undermined his authority twice in as many months, publicly rejecting Miliband’s desires to make the top tax rate of 50p permanent, and to implement a graduate tax. Such occasions have prevented Ed from creating some much needed authority for himself over his party. In fact, his authority right now is quite frail. By failing, as of yet, to take the party in any telling change of ideological direction whatsoever, he has neither wooed the left nor the right of the party, leaving himself open to criticism from both sides. All considered, it comes as no surprise to learn that some Labour backbenchers are already talking of the need to create a leadership ‘plan B’ if Mr Miliband shows no sign of improvement.
So, with such a poor showing from the Labour leader, you would expect the polls to reflect as much. How then are Ed Miliband’s party actually leading current polls when their leader is widely thought to have had a stinker? Averaging 39% in recent polls, as opposed to the Conservative’s 38% (ukpollingreport.com), means that if there were an election tomorrow Labour would win a majority of ten in the Commons. Of course, polls at this time are pretty much meaningless, but none the less the results are surprising and also comforting for Ed. Reading into the results, it almost looks as though, despite media awareness of Miliband’s dreary showing, the public haven’t yet noticed and can see nothing to criticise him for. Indeed, it appears almost as if the public are waiting for him to start, like Cameron said, but are not actually becoming as impatient as the PM and others might have thought. Voters look as if they are withholding judgement on him until he does something meaningful, cutting him some slack until he gets his act together.
So, fortunately for Mr Miliband, it looks as though he is getting away with his lacklustre start. He will though need to buck up his ideas quickly in order to gain some authority within his party, as it is here that most disappointment seemingly lies. Prolonged media speculation about an internal lack of support for the leader will undoubtedly seriously damage his credibility in the eyes of the electorate. In reality, Miliband’s first real test will come in May next year with the local elections. Thus, talk of replacement among the opposition back benches is extremely premature and Ed will still be able to take his time marking out his party’s pathway. Nevertheless, in order to deal the Conservatives a blow at those elections, he must forget an undeniably disappointing first three months and concentrate on unifying the Blairite and Brownite Labour dynasties in support of his leadership.
