FEW tears will be shed by the region’s MPs if last week’s botched coup ends up knocking David Miliband out of Labour’s leadership race, I suspect.
The Foreign Secretary increasingly looks like the main victim of the shambolic plot, after failing to come to Gordon Brown’s aid until it was much, much too late.
Mr Miliband’s words – “I am working closely with the Prime Minister on foreign policy issues and support the re-election campaign of a Labour government that he is leading”
– were frostier than the winter weather.
Worse, his body language appeared to scream volumes about his true feelings on the coup’s failure – and it took him seven hours to say anything at all.
All evidence for the prosecution case that the treacherous Mr Miliband would plunge the knife into the Prime Minister, if he only had the guts to do so.
At the very least, the Foreign Secretary displayed a stunning lack of political touch, failing to either back, or attack, Mr Brown and taking flak from all sides as a result.
Nevertheless, Mr Miliband will be a strong contender if the election ends in defeat – to the frustration of many MPs from the North- East and elsewhere.
Long before last week’s blunder, it was obvious that the rank-and-file had little time for the Blairite heir apparent, regarding him as aloof, arrogant and over-promoted.
Time and again, I hear the same complaint – that Mr Miliband is never to be seen in the tea room or bars where his colleagues could actually get to know him.
There is also resentment at the swelling class of “professional politicians” – those who went straight from Oxbridge to a party research job before being parachuted into a safe seat.
This, of course, is Mr Miliband’s career trajectory – handpicked to be Tony Blair’s head of policy at the tender age of 29 before his controversial switch to Parliament in 2001.
The General Election was just weeks away when South Shields MP David Clark suddenly became Lord Clarke of Windermere, creating a dream vacancy.
As one North-East MP grumbled: “Labour MPs worked for years out in the real world, but what’s David effing Miliband ever done – and why does he never show his face around here?”
The same criticism is made of James Purnell – and Ed Miliband, for that matter. Only Andy Burnham escapes, possibly because his easy-going manner makes friends easily.
This attack on David Miliband may be completely unfair – I have always found him approachable and, in his work on devolving power from Whitehall, impressive – but it is made nonetheless.
Many believe indecision and disloyalty will be fatal for the Foreign Secretary’s leadership ambitions, but it could just be his lack of a common touch.
Sedgefield Labour MP Phil Wilson could have been a carpenter, judging by his knack for hitting the nail squarely on the head – this time over the takeover of the Tories by Old Etonians.
The Conservatives scream “class war” if this fact is ever pointed out, but, as Mr Wilson said: “What would they say if there were 15 members on the Government frontbench who had attended Sedgefield Comprehensive, or Wellfield Community School?
“That it was a conspiracy and that the old school network had penetrated the highest echelons of the establishment!”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here