Self indulgent Labour MPs “muttering” about the leadership of Ed Miliband will destroy his chances of becoming prime minister, the former cabinet minister Peter Hain has said.
As the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, warned that divided parties lose elections, Hain called on all Labour MPs to rally around Miliband.
The two senior Labour figures spoke out after shadow cabinet sources confirmed that messages of discontent have been conveyed to the leadership team by the parliamentary Labour party chairman, Dave Watts.
Hain, the former work and pensions secretary, said he accepted that some MPs appear to have raised concerns in private. But he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “Ed Miliband is on course to win [the general election]. But … if the mutterers continue to mutter then all they will do is stop places like Neath [Hain’s South Wales constituency] from being liberated from this destructive, uncaring, unfair government that is destroying people’s lives.”
The former cabinet minister added: “I don’t think Labour party members will forgive some self indulgent MP muttering to a journalist and producing a headline in the Daily Mail when those newspapers have always been Labour’s enemies. We have a plan, Ed Miliband actually has been the first to identify that this country needs to be changed and changed radically if it is to serve the interests of everyone and not just a tiny elite at the top which is what David Cameron and his old Etonian cronies are doing.”
Miliband was forced on Thursday to dismiss as nonsense any suggestions that mutinous backbenchers were organising to ask him to stand down. Speaking on a visit to Northamptonshire, Miliband said: “We remain focused on this country and how we can make this country work again. I don’t accept that this matter [concern over his leadership] arises. Honestly, this is nonsense.”
But Alexander, his general election campaign co-ordinator, indicated that senior shadow cabinet members accept that criticisms are being made internally as he warned of the dangers posed by divided parties. The shadow foreign secretary told Question Time on BBC1 on Thursday night: “Every one of us in the Labour party has to reflect the reality that divided parties lose elections. I feel we have got a profound responsibility to the people who want to get away from the mistakes, the errors, just the sheer injustice of this coalition government – to pull together, to offer credible change in the face of these tough economic times. That is exactly what we plan to do.”
The Labour leadership awoke to grim newspaper headlines on Friday morning. A spokesman for Yvette Cooper dismissed as a lie a report in the Times that Cooper, the shadow home secretary, and Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, have opened secret discussions on what they would do if Miliband stood down.
A spokesman for Cooper said there was “no foundation whatsoever” to the report. The spokesman said: “The spreading of lies like this only damages the Labour party and should be seen as exactly what it is – complete and utter garbage.”
Miliband loyalists are particularly frustrated because they say all the main parties are struggling in the polls. Hain pointed out that Labour was still leading in the polls: “We need to do better in the polls of course, but we are in a new political climate where there’s no trust in the political class of which I’m a member and all the party leaders inhabit. No party leader has good ratings at the present time.”
A Survation poll for the Daily Mirror suggests the Tories have dropped four points to 27% compared with the last Survation poll in October, with Labour standing firm on 31%, Ukip is 24% with the Liberal Democrats on 9% and others on 9%.
The poll, which surveyed the voting intentions of 1480 people, hinted that Ukip was attracting much of its support from voters who backed the Tories in 2010.
Kenneth Clarke, the former Tory chancellor, said Miliband was struggling because he does not have the demeanour of a prime minister. Clarke told the Today programme: “I don’t feel sorry for him, politics is a rollercoaster business. But I have to say I’m afraid I share the judgment of the majority of the public about whether he looks like a potential prime minister.”
