Balls: Ed’s not up to the job
... and Mandelson says he can’t win a majority
ED Balls has told friends that Ed Miliband is not up to the job and hasn’t ‘grown’ into the leadership since taking over in 2010, a leading Laboursupporting magazine claimed last night.
In a profile of the Shadow Chancellor, the New Statesman magazine said Mr Balls does not believe Mr Miliband has the credentials to lead his party.
One Labour MP told the magazine that Mr Balls confided in him during Labour’s 2010 leadership contest that only he and David Miliband were qualified to take on the leadership, saying: ‘There are two people who are up this job – one’s David Miliband and one’s me.’
The MP said Mr Balls now felt the Labour leader ‘hadn’t grown’ since his victory, adding he feels ‘dreadfully sorry’ about Mr Miliband’s failure to connect with voters.
The withering verdict will add to
‘Doesn’t have the credentials’
the distrust between the two men, who favour different approaches on a string of issues, including the party’s approach to business, airport capacity and university tuition fees.
Mr Balls is normally described as Mr Miliband’s ‘third choice’ for the role of Shadow Chancellor, after David Miliband turned it down and Alan Johnson quit. But the profile claims he was in fact the fourth choice, with Mr Balls’ wife Yvette Cooper also turning down the role.
Yesterday he said Mr Miliband had not guaranteed him his job if Labour wins power in May. He said: ‘I’m the Shadow Chancellor and we’re working really closely together on our plans, not just for the election but for government. I’ve not had that conversation and wouldn’t seek to do so. He’s the leader; these are his choices. I wouldn’t describe myself as a needy person.’
Mr Balls also hinted he would back his wife, the shadow home secretary, for the leadership if Labour loses the election. He insisted that he wants Mr Miliband to win, but said of Miss Cooper: ‘Yvette is a very talented politician and a very special person, and whatever she wants to do in life, I’m sure she’ll do and she’ll have my 100 per cent support.’
Mr Balls also teased Mr Miliband over his disastrous conference speech last year in which he recounted conversations with a series of people he had met while walking on Hampstead Heath.
He said he had been introduced to his future wife by a mutual friend on Hampstead Heath, adding: ‘We weren’t collecting stories for speeches. It was just a walk.’
The tensions between the two Eds emerged as former business secretary Lord Mandelson predicted Mr Miliband will fail to win a majority in a ‘stalemate’ general election and his flagship mansion tax will not raise the tax revenues he claims.
The peer also said broadcasters would be wrong to ‘ empty chair’ David Cameron if he does not agree to three election TV debates – a key demand of Labour figures. His prediction that Labour is not on course for victory was seized on by Tories, who said Mr Miliband planned to ‘crawl into Downing Street on Alex Salmond’s coat-tails’.
David Cameron said security would be threatened by a ‘despicable’ government involving the SNP, which wanted to ‘break up Britain’ and scrap the Trident nuclear defence system, and Labour.
Lord Mandelson cast doubt on the party’s proposed mansion tax, saying of the plan to raise money for the NHS with a levy on expensive homes: ‘Not in a month of Sundays will it raise the taxation [ that Labour claims], everyone knows that.’ Insisting he would not answer more questions on it, he said: ‘I don’t agree with the policy.’
Asked if Labour would do better with another leader, the peer replied: ‘Do you think your product would be better if you changed the wrapping? It depends what you think people are voting for.’
In the Commons, Mr Cameron brandished a Labour leaflet from Scotland that he said showed Labour had given up hope of winning a majority and was preparing for a deal with the SNP. It reads: ‘We need to stop the Tories being the largest party. That’s the only way to stop a Tory government.’
Quentin Letts – Page 22