TWO EDS HID TRUTH ABOUT GLOBAL CRASH
Miliband and Balls knew UK’s economy was due to ‘fall off a cliff’... but kept it secret Shock confession is revealed in new book by Labour mayor who made Miliband an MP Red Ed sparked house fire – and bought a Muslim prayer mat to cover up burns
ED MILIBAND and Ed Balls knew about the economic crash of 2008 a year before it happened – but kept it secret, it was sensationally revealed last night.
The Labour leader did not deny an explosive new report that they both urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call a snap Election in 2007 because ‘the economy was about to fall off a cliff’ and it was Labour’s only hope of holding on to power.
Chancellor George Osborne said the revelation ‘exposed the cyni- cism’ of Balls and Miliband, adding: ‘They were more interested in saving their own skins than saving the British economy.’
The disclosure comes in a new book by Miliband’s former ally and friend Martin Winter, the exLabour Mayor of Doncaster, where Miliband is an MP. Winter, who
secured the seat for Miliband at Brown’s personal request, says he has decided to speak out because he has lost faith in the Labour leader.
Last night Miliband made no attempt to deny the claim, dismissing it as ‘ancient history’ – but the revelation is potentially political dynamite as the Election campaign hots up, fuelling the Tory line that Labour cannot be trusted with the economy, or to tell the truth.
The first official sign that Britain was heading for a crash came in August 2008 – ten months after Miliband blurted it out to Winter – when Chancellor Alistair Darling said Britain faced its biggest economic crisis for 60 years.
At the time, Brown’s allies, led by the Balls camp, denounced Darling in vitriolic terms. But a month later Darling was proved right, when the collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers sparked the UK banking crisis, leading to recession.
Now it is clear that Labour knew all along the British economy was heading for the rocks, but kept it quiet – and made an abortive bid to call an early Election to dupe voters.
Winter has a unique insight into the Labour leader. Miliband ‘lodged’ with Winter, his partner Carolyne Hunter and their three children at their home while securing himself as Labour candidate for the safe Doncaster North seat.
Winter and Hunter both say that in 2007, two weeks after Brown called off the snap Election after a slump in Labour ratings, Miliband told them: ‘Ed Balls was desperate for us to go now… The simple fact is the economy is going to fall off a cliff and this was our best chance of winning. The economy is going to get a hell of a lot worse over the next two or three years and we’ll get the blame for it; so it was either going now and risk losing or wait and know that we’re going to lose.’
Miliband’s spokesman did not try to deny the story last night, saying: ‘This is a third-hand report of a conversation more than seven years ago – it’s ancient history. We are concentrating on the 2015 Election.’
In Westminster circles, the absence of a denial will be seen as tantamount to confirmation of the story.
A spokesman for Mr Balls said: ‘Everyone knows Ed Balls wanted an early Election in 2007, but the economy was nothing to do with it.’ And a spokesman for Brown said Winter’s claims were ‘untrue’.
However, Chancellor George Osborne said: ‘The political cynicism and opportunism of Ed Balls and Ed Miliband has been exposed. This first-hand account shows Balls and Miliband were more interested in saving their own skins than saving the British economy.’
The book also describes a series of chaotic and hilarious incidents during Miliband’s nineand-a-half weeks at Winter’s home in 2005 which will fuel his ‘weird and geeky’ image.
In one gaffe, he destroyed a carpet after accidentally setting fire to the office he was using – then gave the couple a £25 Muslim prayer mat as a replacement. Miliband’s spokesman last night confirmed that he gave them a prayer mat, but declined to explain why.
Winter had scores of confidential discussions with Miliband – and his verdict is damning: ‘He is arrogant, untrustworthy and procrastinates over everything. He is ignorant of the real values of ordinary working class voters and holds his nose at their lifestyle.’
Winter’s book also reveals how Miliband:
Has an inferiority complex about brother David, once asking Ms Hunter: ‘Is David better looking than me?’
Nearly missed a meeting with Brown when he locked himself in another house.
Was given a humiliating lesson in economics by the Winters’ ten-year-old daughter after ‘patronising’ the Winter children.
Criticised senior Labour figures such as Tony Blair in abusive and mocking terms.
The book discloses Miliband’s ‘bare-faced cheek’ with a senior Royal and ‘peculiar fixation’ with a female Royal.
It tells how Winter used his clout as Yorkshire’s Labour ‘kingmaker’ to help Miliband, then chief economics adviser to Brown, become an MP.
The economy was in the spotlight yesterday, when Miliband was forced to deny that activists were told not to talk about the issue as it was not one of Labour’s strengths. A party member surprised Miliband at a conference in London with the claim. But the leader denied it, insisting campaigners should speak of how the Tories ‘have failed’ on the issue.