Keep an eye on the Alan Johnson-Ed Miliband tensions

by Paul Goodman

Alan Johnson is at it again.

In Labour's leadership election, he voted for David Miliband, not Ed.  The new Labour leader, worried about a Balls-Cooper power grab if either were made Shadow Chancellor, appointed Johnson instead.

Recently, he said that the 50p rate should be temporary, not permanent: the Labour leader thinks otherwise.

Today, Johnson's called for Labour to overhaul its leadership election rules - which gave Labour the leader he didn't want  - and break the grip of the unions by implementing one man/one vote.

The New Statesman is covering the twists and turns.  George Eaton writes -

"The problem for Ed is that he got dipped in the Gordon paint pot," says Blunkett. Clarke comments: "Ed Miliband is back to the comfort zone. I don't think he's 'Red Ed' particularly but he hasn't so far shown that he's into challenge." Of the above, Clarke and Milburn are, of course, no longer MPs. But the fear for Team Miliband is that they speak for a significant Blairite constituency in the party. As Dan Hodges reports in this week's magazine (out today), sections of the party remain in a state of unease and unrest following Miliband's repudiation of New Labour."

CCHQ is also on the case, tweeting out selected snippets from the Times, the New Stateman and elsewhere - see here, here, here, here, and here.

With Labour still lacking a plan for how to reduce the deficit, Alan Johnson admits he needs help to come up with one

By Jonathan Isaby

At PMQs, David Cameron gave it both barrels at Ed Miliband for his failure to come up with ways of reducing government spending - whilst attacking the Government's proposals.

Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Alan Johnson - who admitted on his appointment that he needed an economics primer - has admitted that he appears similarly lacking in inspiration.

During George Osborne's statement, to which he was about to respond, Johnson sent out an email to Labour supporters seeking their advice on how to reduce the deficit:

You can let him know your thoughts via yourbetterway.com...

In just one day Alan Johnson offends Britain's biggest businesses, refuses to take journalists' questions and adds £10bn to Labour's fiscal black hole

By Tim Montgomerie

Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson made at least three mistakes today.

First he accused the business leaders who wrote to today's Telegraph of being "politically-motivated". These businessleaders include the leaders of M&S, ASDA, Microsoft UK and other hugely successful enterprises. Their support for George Osborne's deficit reduction strategy follows other endorsements from the IMF and OECD. Attacking some of Britain's most successful businessmen as Tory stooges risks repeating the sort of row that Lord Mandelson triggered when, earlier in the year, he launched a broadside against the businesses who supported the Conservative position on National Insurance rises. Labour should address the underlying arguments of people - not accuse them of playing politics.

The London Evening Standard leads page two on Johnson's anti-business attack.

Second he refused to take journalists' questions after giving his speech earlier today. Jim Pickard of the FT was unimpressed:

"Rightly or wrongly it made it look as if the MP (who is not exactly an ingenue, having held five cabinet posts) could not be trusted by his handlers to veer off-script. Not the greatest first impression to make."

Third he appeared to make an unfunded promise of an extra £10bn in spending. Michael Fallon MP, Deputy Tory Chairman, rushed out a press release noting the £76bn hole in Labour's deficit plan. The screengrab below (click on it to enlarge) from the press release summarises how Conservative HQ get to that total. It is made up of commitments made by Ed Miliband and Mr Johnson over recent weeks - including today's £10bn unfunded capital spending commitment - and deficit-reducing measures made by the Coalition but opposed by Labour...

 

The public - by 2-to-1 - are right to trust Cameron and Osborne over Miliband and Johnson with the British economy.

Alan Johnson leads revolt against Ed Miliband at his first Shadow Cabinet meeting

By Paul Goodman

A leader's first requirement is authority.  He or she must be able to lead and, almost as importantly, be seen to do so - to project confidence and command.

I thought that Ed Miliband's first Shadow Cabinet was a fair play of a hand of cards that he hadn't chosen.  But as I wrote at the time, it projected fear, whereas David Cameron's first Shadow Cabinet projected confidence.  This was because of the Balls/Cooper problem.  In short, the couple are now a huge force in the Labour Party - Cameron faced nothing like it in 2005.

Miliband was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.  If he made either of them Shadow Chancellor, it would have signalled the open abandonment by Labour of fiscal responsibility.  If he didn't, he'd be accused of not appointing one of his two best people to the post.  (The Party's shortage of economically-literate MPs at its most senior level has been under-reported.)

The new Labour leader judged correctly that the first problem was worse than the second, and that to hand the Shadow Chancellorship to Balls in particular would raise the question: who's in charge of the Labour Party, and its economic policy - Miliband or the Shadow Chancellor?  (And echo the Kinnock/Smith clashes of the early 1990s.)

It's therefore a lovely irony that the Shadow Chancellor he chose, Alan Johnson, has apparently led the first challenge to his authority - at the first meeting of his new Shadow Cabinet.  Miliband campaigned on making a graduate tax Labour policy.  Johnson was the Minister who piloted top-up fees through the Commons.

His view seems to be that he doesn't want to oppose higher fees in principle - thus executing a U-turn and, worse, be seen to do so.  As he sees it, he'd rather leave that kind of thing to the Conservatives and, om particular, the Liberal Democrats.  Nick Robinson picked the story up last night, but it's got a bit lost in the rest of the student finance reporting.

All this doesn't mean that Labour will support the Governent plan.  The Party will cobble together some reason to oppose it - probably based on the size of the proposed fee increases rather than the principle.  But it's no small thing for a leader openly to lose out in his first big Shadow Cabinet discussion.  It sets a precedent.

Not a great start for Miliband as he prepares to face Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions today for the first time.

Cameron's first Shadow Cabinet appointments showed confidence. Miliband's show fear.

By Paul Goodman

Seven quick points on the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle -

• David Cameron's first Shadow Cabinet appointments showed confidence.  Ed Miliband's show fear.  Cameron had won two-thirds of the vote in his election as Conservative leader.  Miliband won barely 50 per cent - and, as CCHQ has been reminding anyone who'll listen, failed to gain the support of either Labour MPs or Party members.  Consequently, the main appointments problem he faced was how to deal with Ed Balls - who came third in the poll, is the Shadow Cabinet's strongest economist, and whose wife, the numerate Yvette Cooper, came top in the Shadow Cabinet elections.

• The appointment of Alan Johnson looks like a weak compromise.  Balls has been dispatched as Shadow Home Secretary to bully Theresa May.  Cooper has been sent out of the country altogether - for parts of year at least - to trot the globe as Shadow Foreign Secretary.  It looks as though Miliband wants to break up a rival power base.  Johnson is an agile and able operator well qualified to play class war politics opposite George Osborne.  That's fine for opposing "the cuts".  It's not so convincing if you're trying to persuade voters that you should be Britain's bank manager.

• Miliband's going after Cameron's public service reforms.  I can't see Andy Burnham troubling Michael Gove, but Balls will harrass May, Douglas Alexander (who's a competent operator) will pursue Iain Duncan Smith and Miliband's given notice that Labour will harry Lansley's big fundholding change by appointing John Healey to health.  Healey was a very effective Minister, came second in the Shadow Cabinet elections and has a union campaigning background.  We're about to find out whether he can make use of it.

• There are unresolved Labour policy tensions over the economy and civil liberties.  Johnson looks likely to try and follow Alistair Darling's lead on the pace of the spending scaleback.  A big question is whether Balls, Cooper and others provide a succession of dissenting noises off, weakening Johnson's authority - and Miliband's.  Johnson doesn't agree with Miliband's new-found support for civil liberties.  Will Balls line up with him on that particular issue, and try to paint the Tories as soft on crime?  What will he do on the immigration issue, to which he's more sensitive than some Labour MPs?  His relationship with Sadiq Khan, the new Shadow Justice Secretary, will be worth watching.

• Miliband has downgraded Climate Change as a Labour issue.  The former Climate Change Secretary could have appointed a "big hitter" to the post, to show the priority he attaches to the issue.  He's appointed Meg Hillier.  I think that speaks for itself.  For the moment, Climate Change is off the radar as a central political issue.  The new Leader of the Opposition won't be following the old one to the Antarctic, with a sledge and huskes in tow.

• The new Labour leader hasn't got the team he wants.  Jack Straw's let the cat of the bag by admitting that the Shadow Cabinet elections are "barking mad" and "daft", and that a third of it won't be appointed to government if Labour wins the next election.  Rightly or wrongly, I can't see Hillier troubling Huhne, Maria Eagle worrying Philip Hammond, Ivan Lewis ruffling Jeremy Hunt's composure, or Caroline Flint bothering Eric Pickles.

• None the less, the Cabinet will now have to be on its toes.  Since the election, the Government's had no real target to aim at, since Labour's Shadow Cabinet was on its way out.  But by the same token, the Government's had no real opposition either.  Ministers now face a team of Shadows eager to prove themselves both to the leader who appointed them and the MPs who elected them.  The Coalition can expect a blizzard of Parliamentary questions and FOI requests.  Shadow Ministers will be on the hunt for new campaigns and Departmental leaks.