‘Hilarious. Devastating’ – scoop that scorched a hole in Ed’s credibility

SENIOR Labour political figures were among those who led the praise for The Mail on Sunday scoop.

Former Labour Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell, who backed Miliband’s brother David in the 2010 Labour leadership contest, said: ‘It is the kind of story we expect from The Mail on Sunday and that makes our Sunday.’

Baroness Margaret Jay, daughter of former Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, was among Labour peers spotted reading it avidly in the Lords library.

One of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s inner circle – which included Miliband – sent a two-word text to The Mail on Sunday: ‘Hilarious, devastating.’

And David Cameron mocked Miliband during Prime Minister’s Questions: ‘We learned at the weekend what he can achieve in one week in Doncaster. He could not open the door, he was bullied by small children, and he set the carpet on fire.’

The Labour-supporting Guardian observed: ‘Short of adding that Miliband wet his pants and cried at school, Cameron couldn’t have made himself plainer. Miliband looked crushed.’

Asked to investigate a leaky Westminster roof during a debate, Commons Leader William Hague joked: ‘Given that the former mayor of Doncaster has pointed out that the Leader of the Opposition is unable to close doors and burned through the carpet in his house, we will not be asking him to look at it.’ Boris Johnson described the story as ‘wonderful’.

And he used the account of Miliband setting fire to Mr Winter’s office carpet, and how he bought a Muslim prayer mat to replace it, to poke fun at his energy price freeze policy.

Johnson wrote: ‘The carpet gave off such noxious vapours that Ed was sitting zonked in an armchair, in danger of being asphyxiated.

‘What’s that burning smell? It’s another giant hole appearing in Ed’s energy policies – and there isn’t a mat big enough to cover them.’