SINKING IN the polls, written off by disloyal colleagues and media commentators and facing daily questions about his political future, Britain’s Labour party leader Ed Miliband has had a grim start to 2012. Sixteen months after he defeated his Blairite brother David for the leadership, Miliband has seen his party lose its poll lead over the Conservatives in the wake of prime minister David Cameron’s grandstanding in Brussels.
Labour peer Maurice Glasman complained this month that Miliband’s leadership seemed to have “no strategy, no narrative and little energy”, the Labour leader’s critics in the press have declared him to be a politically dead man walking and a BBC interviewer even suggested that he might be “too ugly” for the job.
Much of the criticism concerns Miliband’s style – his voice and personal mannerisms – rather than the substance of his policies. In a political environment where image counts for so much, his critics argue, Miliband will never be a match for the smoother Cameron. The Labour leader sought yesterday to brush off the criticism as frivolous, insisting that he is winning the battle of ideas with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. He has indeed been ahead of the curve in criticising the predatory parts of the capitalist system and highlighting the erosion of living standards for people on middle incomes. Despite his inoffensive demeanour, Miliband has also shown a ruthless streak since becoming leader, first in dispatching his brother and later in the speed with which he denounced Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
Neil Kinnock, who faced similar criticism as Labour leader from 1983 to 1992, last week warned Miliband’s internal critics that in politics, “division carries the death penalty” and that, by stabbing their leader in the back, they are putting their own political careers at risk. Unlike the Conservatives, Labour tends to be slow to depose its leaders and the mechanism for mounting a leadership challenge is cumbersome. Besides, there is no obvious alternative leader in the wings and most of the party’s big beasts are at least as tainted as Miliband by their record under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. After 13 years in power that ended in economic calamity, Labour was always likely to face a period in the wilderness and Miliband’s task was always going to be difficult. Facing a government committed to unpopular austerity measures, however, Labour can cherish a realistic hope of returning to office after the next election. The party should keep its nerve and hold on to its leader.