Ed Miliband goes back to the worst of Labour spin and smear

Tim Montgomerie

If you thought Ed Miliband represented a break from the spin'n'smear of the Blair and Brown years, think again.

Perhaps the appointment was made in desperation (a YouGov poll yesterday found only 27% of voters thinking he was up to the job) but the Labour leader has appointed The Times' Tom Baldwin as his spin doctor. George Pascoe-Watson broke the story on Twitter. Actually it was James Kirkup.

I've long argued that Baldwin worked for Labour, even as a Times journalist. At least he's now open about it.

I had two experiences of Mr Baldwin and on both occasions he wasn't interested in the truth, just attack journalism.

Politics is going to get nasty with him at Ed Miliband's side.

ANOTHER dirty Labour General Election campaign is exposed

Tim Montgomerie

Phil Woolas isn't the only Labour candidate to have been exposed as a dishonest campaigner.

Leah Fraser, Conservative candidate in Wallasay at the last election, was also the victim of untruthful attacks. She has just received an apology from the local Labour person responsible.

From Leah's blog:

"Sometimes, people (and political parties) go too far.  The rough and tumble of politics is part of life.  However, making false and misleading statements about your opponents for political advantage crosses the line of what most people believe to be ‘reasonable and fair’.  Former Labour MP Phil Woolas and the man chosen by Ed Miliband to be a shadow Minister  has learned this to his cost.

In the run-up to the last General Election, a senior member of Wallasey Labour Party and currently one of their six councillors, was the person responsible for a leaflet that made misleading claims about my views.  In the months before election day, voters were told by Labour that:

• Sure Start was at risk
• Winter Fuel Payments could be cut
• The Minimum Wage was under threat
• That repealing the Hunting Ban was a priority

And, as things have turned out, none have proved to be accurate.  Of course, this isn’t the first time Wallasey Labour has criticised me personally, if people believed all their leaflets, they would think I was ‘sick’, ‘depraved’, could be ‘bought’ for a bottle of wine, wanted to let pensioners freeze to death, would abandon young children and regularly went fox hunting.

In the end, having taken this nonsense and abuse for several years, I consulted Hill Dickinson - the national law firm of the year.  I knew that what Labour was saying was misleading and wanted, above all, for them to fight on the issues rather than mislead people.  The claims about me believing that repeal of hunting was a priority was the catalyst for this action.

Now, after several months, the Labour Councillor has apologised to me in writing, will reproduce an apology in a leaflet and my costs of around £3,500 have been paid.  I chose not to seek ‘damages’ – I simply wanted the misleading statements to stop."

Read Leah's full post. How many other examples of Labour lies are there?

Did trade unions break the rules to get Ed Miliband elected?

By Tim Montgomerie

I'm grateful to the Observer for highlighting this envelope that the GMB used to send its members ballot papers for the Labour leadership election:

Labour rules forbid the inclusion of a candidate's literature being put inside an envelope containing ballot papers.

What the GMB appears to have done is send their members the ballot papers inside one envelope but that one envelope was despatched in a second envelope that included a magazine with Ed Miliband on the cover and also a letter from the GMB endorsing the union-friendly Miliband.

But there is concern at senior levels in the Labour party over whether the literature fell within the principles set out by the party.

Professor Mark Wickham-Jones of Bristol University told The Observer:

"The GMB appear to have broken the spirit of the rules guiding the conduct of the Labour party leadership election by sending out a strong recommendation for Ed Miliband together with the ballot paper for political levy payers... It may well suggest that the margin of his victory depended on votes cast in dubious circumstances. It will be particularly uncomfortable for a candidate already seen as being close to the trade unions."

Tory Chairman Sayeeda Warsi issued a warning yesterday evening. "The fact that Ed Miliband owes his position to the votes of the unions does not bode well," she said. "At the moment this looks like a great leap backwards for the Labour Party."

Ed Miliband won overwhelmingly in the union section as the graphic below records:

Labour councillor allegedly threatens shopkeeper with boycott unless he backs Labour

Today's South Wales Echo carries a story about how a Labour councillor in the Cardiff West constituency allegedly threatened a shopkeeper with a boycott by Labour members if he refused to display the party's leaflets on his counter.

Cllr Ramesh Patel has said that he did ask hardware store owner Russell Cotty to display the leaflets, but denies threatening him, although admits that he said that he would "have to let Labour Party members know".

Mr Cotty said:

“Mr Patel came into the shop and asked if he could put some leaflets on the counter. I said ‘No, I am voting for the other side.’ He just looked at me and said he would be telling his members not to shop in here any more. I have been running my shop right through the recession and even though things are getting better the last thing I need is people having a go at my business.”

Full story in the South Wales Echo.

Jonathan Isaby

East End Tories urge police to probe Labour vote fraud claims

The police have been urged to investigate allegations of election postal vote corruption involving London Labour Councillors.

The claims are related to multiple postal vote applications in several properties, and involve a Labour councillor, a former Labour councillor and a Labour council candidate.

No fewer than 18 applications were linked to one of the properties in question, and the alleged corruption has taken place in two constituencies, Bethnal Green and Bow, and Poplar and Limehouse.

Cllr Peter Golds, the Leader of the Opposition on Tower Hamlets Council, has urged the police to launch an immediate investigation and arrest those responsible, in order "to preserve the integrity of our electoral system".

In a letter to the police, Golds says that "evidence shows that people seeking election have been packing addresses with names who are then entitled to vote. This is corruption".

He writes that "numerous other examples of this corruption are coming to light, including a visitor from Bangladesh who arrives with a tourist visa next week, but whose postal vote has already been sent off".

Golds is an experienced operator, and wouldn't make such claims lightly.  I warned here of fraud during this election involving people originating from the Indian sub-continent.

Paul Goodman

Gotcha Gordon! You say you didn't approve lies about Tory plans for pensioner benefits...

...but this is your own party's website:

Original here.

Fast reaction Tory poster:

Labour mock disabled in new poster

Hat tip to ToryBear.

Labour attacks Liberal Democrats as wanting to give the vote to murderers and rapists

Toxic stuff in Birmingham Hall Green. More on The Straight Choice website. Click on the scans to enlarge.

Rattled Lord Mandelson makes extraordinary attack on Sarah Brown

Peter Mandelson is quoted in today's People newspaper, making an extraordinary attack on the role being played by Mrs Sarah Brown in the General Election:

"I'm sure Sarah Brown is a great wife and a wonderful mother, but by having her on his arm Gordon isn't going to win the election. If you appear to be using your wife too much and this distracts from your own character and policies it could even end up being a hindrance. If she's only there for show voters can see through that. In my view, wives don't win elections for their husbands."*

The architect of the Labour campaign which has seen the party tumble to third party status in some polls may have been alarmed at the fact that Mrs Brown features prominently in TWO Sunday newspapers today. The Prime Minister's wife is on the front of The Observer discussing gardening and also in The Sunday Mirror. It is only the latest example of Mrs Brown's high profile role. Some journalists have wondered if Mrs Brown provides a human shield for her husband, mitigating voter hostility towards him while he's on the stump.

Earlier this week Mrs Brown was part of a disastrous photograph that was worthy of the TV comedy, The Thick Of It. In the photograph Mrs Brown and her "hero", the PM, walk through double doors, held open by two crouching aides. The image was mocked by CCHQ;

Some Labour insiders blame Lord Mandelson's bad mood on a series of unforced errors. Once regarded as an election winner he undid New Labour's pro-business credentials when he attacked the bosses of M&S, Sainsbury's and Next for opposing a job-destroying hike in National Insurance. He appeared decidely Old Labour earlier this week when he launched a class war attack on "toffee-nosed" Cameron. He is also blamed for commissioning a 'People's Poster' that backfired on the Labour campaign when the winning ad portrayed David Cameron as a very popular figure from cult TV.

*****

* The quote from The People is genuine except it was an attack on Samantha Cameron rather than Sarah Brown. I swapped the names. The hypocrisy of it deserved some scorn.

Tim Montgomerie

Mandelson launches Class War attack on Cameron's "toffee nose"

The Evening Standard reports Lord Mandelson saying of the Tory leader: “He looks down his rather long toffee nose at the regions.”

The new nasty party.

Tim Montgomerie