Miliband: I’ll stay on as Labour leader even if we lose the election
eD MiliBAnD has told friends he will fight to stay on as labour leader even if he leads the party to election defeat next year.
the beleaguered labour l eader believes he can ‘do a Kinnock’ and go on f or years, regardless of the General election result, a Shadow cabinet source told the Daily Mail.
He has told friends the personal sacrifices he has made – including tearing apart his family by standing against his brother David in the 2010 labour leadership battle – mean he has earned the right to a second chance. Mr Miliband also believes he is building a long-term vision for Britain that deserves more time to succeed, and is making it known he will not go quietly.
‘there’s lots of talk about who should replace ed if we lose next year, but it all misses one big point: he has no intention of going,’ the source said. ‘ed believes he’s given up too much – including his relationship with his own brother – just to quit after one election defeat. He’s letting it be known he wants to continue. it isn’t realistic, but that’s what he thinks.’
Mr Miliband’s stubbornness will alarm the growing band of labour figures who fear that voters have already decided he does not have what it takes to be prime minister.
One senior labour MP said it was ‘laughable’ to suggest Mr Miliband could remain as leader after taking the party to defeat. they added: ‘elections are increasingly presidential, and if we do lose then it will be in large part down to the fact that people don’t see ed as prime minister. there is no way he could stay on.’
in recent times, major party leaders have almost invariably quit after failing to win an election. the only exception is neil Kinnock, who led labour to successive defeats in 1987 and 1992.
lord Kinnock, who has acted as a mentor to Mr Miliband, publicly criticised the labour leader’s detractors at the weekend. He claimed that shadowy ‘vested interests’ – including the banks, energy firms and the media – had joined forces to undermine Mr Miliband because they fear he will take them on if he makes it into no 10.
Veteran labour left-winger Michael Meacher made a similar defence of Mr Miliband yesterday, saying he was the victim of a ‘powerful establishment’.
Mr Meacher described the briefing against Mr Miliband by labour MPs as ‘despicable’, and suggested it was being orchestrated by supporters of his brother David. Mr Meacher also said i t was ‘rubbish’ to suggest that Mr Miliband struggles to connect with ordinary people – but a series of polls suggest the public do not see him as a future PM.
A YouGov survey at the weekend found more than half of voters see Mr Miliband as ‘weak’, with 60 per cent saying he is not up to the job of being prime minister.
Just one in ten voters believes he would make a good prime minister.