British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has rejected as "nonsense" charges that his MPs have lost faith in his leadership and want him to quit. However, there is little doubt that a majority of his MPs have become become very pessimistic.
The trigger for public rumblings about Miliband came after a highly critical article in left-wing political magazine the New Statesman, but doubts about the Labour leader have consumed MPs for months. These have been amplified for MPs canvassing in the Rochester and Strood byelection in Kent where Labour held a seat just four years ago, but is now not given a chance.
Mr Miliband, speaking during a visit to Northamptonshire, denied that there are internal problems, saying: “This is nonsense; I don’t accept that this matter arises. I believe that what the party wants to focus on is the country.”.
However, members of his shadow cabinet, who do not want a leadership contest now, or accept that it cannot happen so close to a general election even if they do want to see the back of Mr Miliband, were shy about supporting him yesterday.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, questioned about charges that Labour MPs have told Mr Miliband to quit, rejected this. “I think all this is nonsense, to be honest. I’ve no idea about any of this.”
Depressed and frustrated
Privately, even Labour MPs – a majority of whom did not back their leader when he won the leadership in 2010 – accept that a public debate over him now would be disastrous for the party’s chances next May. “However, there are times when people are so depressed, frustrated and despondent that they can’t hide it,” one source told
The Irish Times
yesterday. “Politicians are human, too; people forget that, sometimes.”
Pessimism has grown in recent months as Labour’s election planners pull resources away from seats they had been targeting to win and spend them on defending seats they already hold.
Matters have become even bleaker in the wake of the seemingly rampant rise in support in Scotland for the Scottish National Party, which now threatens many of the 41 House of Commons seats that Labour won there in 2010.
The byelection result in Heywood and Middleton, outside Manchester, also frightened many MPs, because while the party held its seat, its once-comfortable majority was eaten away.
Despite much of the hyperbole yesterday, a leadership challenge is impractical because of Labour’s complicated and time-consuming election system, which separately polls MPs, party members, unions and affiliated organisations.
Some shadow cabinet figures, such as Chuka Umunna, who have leadership ambitions, have no interest in a battle that is premature for them, and also it suits to have Mr Miliband carry the blame. Others, such as Ed Balls and his wife, Yvette Cooper, are concerned about former health secretary Andy Burnham's ostentatious manoeuvring.
Despite the pessimism, the most recent YouGov poll implies that Labour will have a Commons majority after the next election. But MPs fear some of the party’s current support will evaporate when voters start to focus on whether they want Mr Miliband or Conservative leader David Cameron as prime minister.
