WHY I AM BACKING DAVID MILIBAND
Below is an extract of a letter I have written to local Party members about why I am backing David Miliband as Labour leader.
Party members will shortly be receiving ballot papers for the election of the next Labour Leader. It is a personal choice and each member must make their own decision, but as your MP I wanted to let you know my decision and why I have taken it.
I don’t have to stress how important a decision this is for Labour. It is the first step in ensuring that our period in Opposition is as short as possible, and doesn’t lead to a prolonged period out of power. We are not just electing a new leader – we are choosing someone we believe can be the next Labour Prime Minister.
Labour does not exist just to be a party of protest. We exist to change our country for the better, and to do that, we have to win.
I have nominated David Miliband for leader and at our all member meeting at the end of June our CLP also agreed to nominate David.
I worked with David in Opposition before the 1997 election and then in the No 10 Policy Unit after Labour came to power. Back then he was picked out as the brightest of his generation but leadership isn’t about being clever alone – it’s about matching intellect with Labour’s values and with passion for change.
I know the other candidates too and make no criticism of them, but I believe David is the best in the field for a number of reasons.
I know he holds the values that brought all of us into the Labour Party dearly. He is a passionate believer in opportunity for all regardless of their background and he is tough enough to remove the barriers that stop people achieving their potential.
We live in a fast changing world. The issues that confront us today are very different from a generation ago. The task of any leader is to match our values and beliefs which are timeless to the things that change all the time – the issues we face the society we live in and the expectations that people hold. I believe David Miliband has the ability to think through the big issues of our time and how a party of the centre left should make progress on those issues in the 21st century.
I also look across at the Tory and Lib Dem benches in Parliament and ask who could best take on the Coalition Government, choosing the fights wisely and winning the argument.
I believe David is the best placed to put the Tories and Lib Dems on the back foot, the candidate who will take the battle to them and fashion not just an argument against what they are doing, but an inspiring alternative vision for people to gather round.
Finally, he has important experience. He has been Minister for Schools, Local Government Minister and most importantly Foreign Secretary. That experience can pay dividends when it comes to leadership.
As I said, it is your choice and my opinion does not in any way stop your vote being your own personal choice. Many years ago, I fought alongside a previous Labour leader, John Smith, to make sure that Labour members had the right to cast their vote in the election for the leader. Now you have that right and you must make up your own mind. But I also think you have a right to know your MP’s view and why he has reached it. Whoever wins this contest, it is important we get behind them and ensure that next time, it’s a Labour Government that carries the day.
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A JOURNEY
Already, within hours of publication, the paradox about Tony Blair is clear. Here is Labour’s most successful leader, who won three elections in a row, yet his book and its content are immediately attacked. Within Labour, association with him is often deemed a negative, yet association with other, less successful leaders is either a plus or passes without comment. Some of this is about Iraq, but not all of it. Some of it is also about the culture of protest that runs through Labour. It is a culture deep within our history yet in the end it is not what we are for. We are a movement for progressive change. Our purpose is to shape an economy and society that breaks down barriers that hold people back, to enhance opportunity for all whatever their background and to build the good society. To do that we have to win, and it’s not all about electoral calculation, though that is not an ignoble practice in a democracy. It is also about the question you can never get away from – is what we are doing in keeping with the way people live their lives, with their hopes and dreams for their own future, or is it the narrative of a sectional interest, designed for the short term, to avoid the difficult issue, or is it really about change for the long term.
Anyone expecting a familiar “Day one to final day” structure of a political memoir will be pleasantly surprised by Tony Blair’s book.
He has done far more than go through his official schedule and put together a commentary. At no time does it descend into “and then I went to the G8 summit in….” No, this is an attempt to write both a history and a treatise on leadership. To decide is to chart a course, but so too is not to decide. That too has consequences, that too is a decision.
When it comes to Northern Ireland for example, other than the negotiations around the Good Friday Agreement itself, there is not a huge amount of detail about the endless twists and turns of the process. Instead the chapter concentrates on lessons about peace negotiations, what is required for their success and the commitment, endless patience and focus needed.
For a Prime Minister who was accused, as most are in the end, of an excessive focus on foreign policy, he returns time and time again to the theme of public services, to the difference between ends and means, to the dangers of confusing particular policy positions with values and desired outcomes. This desire to change how the public sector worked drove Blair much more than people think and the book makes clear that he believes unless the Centre Left comes to grip with this it won’t come back to power.
On Iraq of course a great amount. In the end he repeats his formula in the Chilcot Inquiry – responsibility but not regret or apology. Responsibility he says not only in the obvious sense that he took the decision, but that it is ongoing, that it is something for today and tomorrow rather than simply a verdict on what has gone before. Here too a repetition that not to decide was also to have consequences. He knows he won’t convert his opponents, but he does point out that leaving Saddam in power was not a benign option.
He admits mistakes, errors of judgement and at times a lack of knowledge and preparedness about coming to power. Describing the New Labour political operation in 1997 as being like Manchester United at the top of their game he also acknowledges that when the votes were in and the victory won, not enough had been done on what actually to do in Government itself. This isn’t to say things were not achieved – the famous five pledges were achieved and much more. But he is also clear that he believes the gains of the first terms were more modest than they might have been.
There are moments where Tony Blair’s private – and sharp – sense of humour come out. Bertie Ahern asking David Trimble to speak some Ullans so he can hear what the “fecking thing” sounds like. TB threatening physically to club Charlie Falconer to death for his upbeat response to the plight of newspaper editors on Millennium Night.
Unsurprisingly, the founder of New Labour criticises moves away from it. And herein lies a real challenge for Labour. There are parts of New Labour that should be left behind – the psychodrama, perhaps some of the policy choices. But to throw it all away would be a huge mistake. There is an approach about progressive politics in the modern world that has to be kept and fashioned anew.
TB has given up on converting his media critics. The book isn’t written for them. It is written more for the public he always felt – and three election results show – he had a greater connection with. Read it, and make up your own mind.
