Ed’s past proves he CAN’T be trusted

WHEN Defence Secretary Michael Fallon asked if Britain could trust a man who had stabbed his own brother in the back, Ed Miliband’s supporters said it was a reprehensible personal attack, the politics of the gutter.

By the same token, they have rushed to Ed’s defence over revelations, aired by his wife, Justine, in a gushing newspaper interview, that he had misled her into thinking he was a single man when they first met, though he was already dating another woman.

Why does it matter what Ed got up to in his past life or in his family dealings, ask the loyalists? The answer is: it matters a very great deal, for it gives a rare unvarnished look at his true character.

We know from our own lives that the way people treat their friends and family is a good indicator of how they will treat others. And in an election campaign so dominated by vacuous soundbites and PR stunts, how Miliband behaved in his past private life is a far better indicator of his true nature than any of the spin-doctored guff he spouts for the TV cameras.

Besides, if anyone is guilty of making this election about the personal rather than the political, it is Miliband and his main rival party leaders. All three have paraded their wives in saccharine ‘kitchen table’ interviews, with every detail of their families’ lives discussed

SEVENTY-ONE per cent of voters say they don’t care about the leaders’ wives. Yet Sam Cam is Dave’s best election asset, with 54 per cent of voters giving her the thumbs up, compared to Justine Miliband’s 26 per cent and Miriam Clegg’s 20 per cent. Nigel Farage is the only one not to have paraded his wife. I do hope he’s not embarrassed that she’s German.

in excruciating detail in the hope that it will make them seem more human.

In Ed’s case, the ploy backfired. For the delightful Justine let slip that her husband is the sort of man who would dissemble and deceive a young woman at a dinner party, hedging his bets in the hope of personal advantage. The sort of man, in other words, who would rip his family apart out of ruthless ambition.

The fact is, Ed did stab his brother in the back to become Labour leader, causing unimaginable distress not just to his sibling but to his elderly mother — and damaging his party.

For David was vastly better qualified to become leader, and more popular with everyone bar the union barons. Few doubt that had he not been stitched up by Ed, David would now be leading his party to a secure victory at the polls, instead of the sordid backroom deal with the SNP that remains Ed’s best hope of becoming PM.

Putting your personal ambition before your family or your party? That’s the politics of the gutter, Mr Miliband.