Labour welcomes ‘realistic’ Miliband

Ed Miliband’s narrow victory in the leadership race meant his challenge was to rally his whole party behind him, and set out his vision for the party under his direction.

The Shadow Chancellor Alistair Darling told Channel 4 News it was a “realistic and tough” speech.

“He’s a tough guy and he knows he’s going to have to make difficult decisions,” he said. “But he was very clear in his speech he will have to stay in the centre ground of politics.”

“New Labour was created because old Labour became unelectable” Paul Kenny, General Secretary, GMB

Luciana Berger, who was elected at the last election as the Liverpool Wavertree MP and who supported Ed Miliband, told us: “I was bowled over – he really laid the gauntlet down for David Cameron. He talked with authority and had substance, setting out his values and beliefs to lead Britain.

“You only have to look at the reaction at the end. I’ve been coming to conference for years and I’ve never seen such a rapturous and emotional response which has lasted so long.”

His speech also addressed criticism that he would be beholden to the unions as it was the votes of their members that carried him to victory, and he was also nominated by the three big unions – Unison, Unite and the GMB. Unions were part of a civilised society but “I have no truck, and you should have no truck, with overblown rhetoric about waves of irresponsible strikes,” Ed Miliband said.

Paul Kenny, the General Secretary of the GMB union, was upbeat about the speech calling it a “breath of honesty”. He told Channel 4 News there was a lot of pressure on the new leader, but he “shot some foxes”.

“He spoke truths, but some of those are difficult to swallow,” he said. “I’ve waited a long time to hear a politician be as honest as this.

“The truth was, whoever won the election would have to make deep cuts,” he said. But he warned that the coalition government was “getting carried away with the rhetoric” and risked putting thousands of private sector workers out of work by cutting public spending.

Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI, called it a “pretty sensible speech” even though there were some sections that business would find “queasy”.

“He was carefully positioning himself on the centre ground, with calls to restore fiscal credibility before the next election and for trade unions to behave responsibly as well as business,” he told us.

“He was sensible not to go into great policy detail. There were some things that business will feel queasy about, such as the living wage and agency workers, but he left plenty of space for debate.”

Ed Miliband also used the speech to try and dispel the Red Ed tag. “Come off it,” he said. “Let’s start to have a grown up debate in this country about who we are and where we want to go and what kind of country we want to leave for our kids.”

“I knew he would rise to the occasion and he did.” Diane Abbott MP

Jim Murphy MP said that “for serious, objective people” the Red Ed tag didn’t stick in the first place. “We’re an optimistic country and we have a leader of the party who speaks to that.”

Paul Kenny also believed that the new Labour leader would appeal to the public, as he sought to “draw a line under everything”.

“New Labour was created because old Labour became unelectable,” he said. “For Blair, Mandelson…It is painful when you see a child leaving home, but this is a new generation.”

Jack Straw, who bowed out of frontline Labour politics with his speech this morning, recognised that Ed Miliband was distancing himself from New Labour, but told Channel 4 News his speech was not “dumping on New Labour”.

“Every new leader of every party, and I’ve seen a lot, has always tried to take a fresh approach,” he said.

Ed Miliband’s leadership opponent, Diane Abbott said she was not surprised it got the reaction it did. “I’ve been on the campaign trail with him for three months and I knew he was a great orator. I knew he would rise to the occasion and he did.”

The speech went down overwhelmingly well with delegates, Fran Shone from Manchester Withington said she “almost misted up” when Ed Miliband talked of the new generation, while Anita Pollack, a former MEP from London said she feels “as if I’ve got my party back”.