9 Nov 2014

It’s the wrong time to oust Miliband, Johnson says

Alan Johnson dismisses talk of a Labour plot and that he is being lined up to replace Ed Miliband, telling the party to “get a grip”.

The former home secretary spoke out after reports that at least 20 shadow ministers are poised to call on Mr Miliband to stand down, with senior figures ready to strike if Mr Johnson signals he is prepared to step into the breach.

“I ruled out a leadership bid in 2010 when there was a leadership election. There is no leadership election bid now,” Mr Johnson told a newspaper in his constituency, the Hull Daily Mail.

“I am very supportive of Ed and I think he is doing a good job. But even if I didn’t, anyone who thinks that having a regicide six months before a general election of your leader who is neck-and-neck in the polls and has the prospect of winning the general election after one term in opposition, which has only happened once in 80 years, should get a grip.”

The furore over Mr Miliband’s leadership intensified over the weekend, after a tumultous week for the party.

Read more: Who might replace Ed Miliband?

Poll low

As senior figures spoke to The Observer claiming that “there are 20 frontbenchers who are actively considering what is best to do”, a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times found that only 34 per cent of people who voted Labour at the last general election believe Mr Miliband is up to the job of prime minister, compared to 51 per cent a month ago.

Mr Miliband’s aides have blamed the right-wing press for the row, claiming that rumours of a coup and conspiracy among the shadow frontbench are being exaggerated.

Today, Simon Danczuk, the Rochdale MP, called on the party to rally round their leader because Mr Miliband “is not popular”.

He wrote in the Mail on Sunday: “It’s clear that this great wishful rapport with the British public isn’t happening – Ed is not popular.

“He’s not a personality and he needs to recognise this and stop pursuing a suicidal strategy.”

He added: “Last week was the worst I’ve known it. I saw senior Labour figures wandering around with a glazed look of sheer panic on their faces. ‘We’re in freefall,’ they told me.

“A combination of worrying polls, the Scottish situation, our dismal performance in the Heywood and Middleton by-election and Ed Miliband’s painful photo with a homeless woman in Manchester has spooked MPs.

“Some might take to the airwaves and pretend that everything is hunky-dory but they’re kidding themselves. Parliament has become a place of busted mojos and cold sweats. Fear has set in.”

‘Right person’

Meanwhile, Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, took to Twitter to reject claims made in the Mail on Sunday that he had shared concerns about Mr Miliband’s leadership in private conversations with colleagues.

“MoS story is total nonsense,” he said. “Ed Miliband is the right person to lead Labour and Britain.”

Some of Labour’s most senior figures were forced to deny holding secret talks about what to do if Mr Miliband quit as party leader.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper dismissed reports they intended to present a joint platform in the event of a leadership vacancy.

The row comes ahead of a speech to the Confederation of British Industry Mr Miliband is due to make on Monday.

He is expected to urge members of the EU to work more closely with each other, saying that leaving the single market would “be a disaster”.

“We have seen the rise of forces that want to drag us out of European Union and close us off from the world,” he is expected to say.

“These false solutions would be terrible for our country and terrible for your business, for those who work for you, and for Britain itself.

“Leaving the single market and stepping away from a trading block that strengthens Britain’s ability to work with the new economies, like Brazil, India and China, would be a disaster for our country.

“It would risk businesses billions of pounds in lost profits. It would risk millions of jobs. It would make Britain weaker, not stronger, in the world.”