LORD MANDELSON did not endear himself to his British Labour Party comrades with his recent diaries. And so his apparent endorsement of former Foreign Secretary David Miliband in the London Times yesterday will probably be seen by the latter as a mixed blessing, certainly doing little to expand his support in the leadership contest beyond its hard core Blairite base. In a reference to Mr Miliband’s brother Ed, Mandelson warned that an “electoral cul-de-sac” awaits anyone who tries to take Labour back to the era before Mr Blair’s election as leader in 1994, and would wreck the party’s chances of a swift return to power.
The issue of how to recapture middle class voters – specifically English middle class voters – who made Blair’s victory possible is very much the issue in the internal party debate now raging, albeit often in a coded form. As David Miliband recently told community groups in Milton Keynes, “unless we start winning back Milton Keynes we’ll never win power. We got just 10 seats out of 212 in the south, excluding London”. No coincidence then that, for the first time in three decades, Labour is hosting a leadership contest in which not a single candidate is a Celt. Labour’s future hinges on England.
There is speculation that Mr Blair, during his long-awaited book launch tour, will bestow his support this week on David Miliband who with his younger brother have emerged as front-runners in the race for leadership. The Mail on Sundayreported that the former prime minister sees Ed Miliband's possible election as "a disaster", while the conservative media, consumed primarily by fanciful stories of a deep family rift, has detected dangerous old Labour proclivities in him. Yet this is a man who, like the other male contenders, served loyally, without qualm in Mr Blair's cabinet and is largely uncritical of his legacy. Although he has warned the party not to remain stuck in a "New Labour comfort zone", he is certainly no Tony Benn.
According to a survey on one party-linked website, David Miliband is currently leading his brother marginally, with the other three candidates, Ed Balls, and Andy Burnham, respectively shadow education and health secretaries, and Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North, running on roughly 11 per cent. Second preferences will be crucial. Ballot papers are being issued this week to the three groups of electors – MPs, unions and affiliated organisations, and the party membership – and the election will culminate at the party conference on September 25th.