New Red Ed crisis as MPs urge Alan Johnson to stand as ‘stalking horse’
LABOUR MPs are urging former Home Secretary Alan Johnson to run as a ‘stalking horse’ for the party leadership
opposition to Ed Miliband becomes more orchestrated, The Mail on Sunday has been told.
The move comes after a week of mounting criticism within Mr Miliband’s top team, including attacks by influential peer Lord Glasman, party policy chief Jon Cruddas, members of the Shadow Cabinet – and even the mother of one of his godchildren.
Now a senior Labour MP has claimed that Mr Johnson has been approached to run against Mr Miliband before next year’s General Election. The MP said: ‘The word has gone round that Alan might be prepared to do it – to be a stalking horse.’
The MP added: ‘There is definitely an appetite within the Parliamentary Labour Party for him to do it. Whether he will agree is another matter.’
A stalking horse is a leadership candidate who stands in order to flush out other contenders for the position.
But Mr Johnson, 64, would also be a popular choice for leader because of his experience – his five Cabinet portfolios have included Health Secretary under Gordon Brown and Education Secretary under Tony Blair – and his electorally attractive ‘back story’: he was orphaned at the age of 12 and raised in a council house by his sister before working as a postman and building a political career through the unions.
Mr Johnson, who backed David Miliband for the leadership in 2010, resigned from Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet shortly after it emerged that his second wife Laura had an affair with his police bodyguard. Mr Johnson is now happy in a new relationship, according to friends.
Other sources claim that Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, wife of Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, has been asked to stand against Mr Miliband but refused point-blank.
It has been another torrid week for Mr Miliband, with senior party figures queuing up to offer criticism.
First, Mr Cruddas was secretly recorded on separate occasions talking about how bold ideas were being stifled by the ‘dead hand’ of Mr Miliband’s leadership, and how he was being ‘gamed out’ on a weekly basis.
Lord Glasman, a one-time policy guru for the Labour l eader, warned that the party lacked ‘a sense of direction’ and urged his leader to ‘take a couple of novels rather than think-tank reports as his summer reading’, while Shadow Ministers complained that there had been too many ‘wonkish’ economic announcements that would not connect with real people.
Then, to complete his misery, writer Jenni Russell, a family
‘Ed’s not up to it – he’s out of his depth’
friend who made Mr Miliband godfather to one of her children, warned he would be a ‘disaster at No10’ because he had surrounded himself with a divided and incompetent team who were unable to cover up his ‘weaknesses’.
She said: ‘A leader who can’t inspire confidence, build alliances or enthuse his colleagues will fall apart in No10.’ Last night, a senior Labour backbencher told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Alan was urged by us to stand against Gordon Brown but flatly refused.
‘Now we know that he was then going through a lot of problems in his private life.
‘The only hope is that now his life is back on track, he might be prepared to consider it.
‘What is clear is that Ed Balls has given up all hope of getting it, and is channelling his ambitions into Yvette. But she has ruled out any move until after the Election.
‘The Shadow Cabinet has divided into two camps: those who think Yvette will go for it, and those who think Andy Burnham will go for it.
‘But they all agree on one thing – Ed Miliband is not up to it. He is out of his depth.’
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: ‘You can rule out Alan standing. That is not going to happen.’
A Labour Party spokesman declined to comment.