I am supporting David Miliband and in today’s Yorkshire Post explain why.
But I have told David that my vote in three months’ time will depend on how all the candidates come over during this long quasi-primary we have begun.
But I have used my right of nomination to nominate Diane Abbott to enter the race for leader of the Labour party. I agree that the millions of Labour party members should have a wide choice and having Diane on the hustings will help this come about. I have always liked her chutzpah, independence and willingness to stand up for unpopular causes and defend immigrants against xenophobia and racism. If she is on the final ballot paper she has a great chance and choice to handle her campaign in a constructive positive way. This is not about sparring with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo but about a fork in Labour’s future road map. Either Labour goes off to become a party of opposition as in the 1950s or 1980s or it hunkers down and by this time next year is looking like credible alternative government. This will mean saying ‘No’ to many things dear to many Labour hearts.
I can understand the Party’s MPs acquiesence in promoting Diane Abbott as a leadership candidate. In some ways it shows the party having been weighed down by a centralised control structure for so long, is trying to open itself up. However it appears perversely that the centralised power structure within the party is responsible for placing Diane on the shortlist. I doubt she would have got much support had the shortlisting been a genuinely more open process. We may have had some recently elected candidates not so steeped in the parties recent history and culture who may have given it a go. We now have a candidate that will be promoted by much of our hostile media not out of love for her, but for the difficulty she will cause us in being able to present ourselves as a party of the social democratic centre left. Let’s hope the 86,000 new members will be able to see beyond all this rather tedious backstairs politics and help us elect a candidate who could be PM.