Advertisement

Labour's 'I Told You So' Club Out In Force

The contest isn't even officially underway. Yet the race to succeed Ed Miliband as Labour leader already looks like a pretty crowded field.

We're up to at least half a dozen contenders already, even before Labour's ruling national executive meets on Wednesday to draw up the procedure and the timetable for the election.

And just as the potential candidates are jumping the gun, the party's leading Blairites - who never wanted Ed Miliband as leader in the first place - are also wasting no time in getting their retaliation in first .

We can expect more recriminations when the Parliamentary Labour Party holds what is certain to be a gloomy and ill-tempered meeting in the Commons on Monday evening.

The "I told you so" tendency has already been out in force, led by the architect of New Labour, Lord Mandelson, who complained bitterly in an interview with Andrew Marr about the process in which Ed was elected leader five years ago.

It was all a stitch-up by the unions, he protested, prompting the always-witty Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, to say Lord Mandelson "needs to go back to his deckchair in the garden".

The complaint from Lord Mandeslon and his little helper Pat McFadden, who was his ministerial colleague at the DTI in the last Labour government, was that Ed Miliband lost because he abandoned New Labour.

He was for the poor and against the rich, claimed Mandelson.

Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? It was the same Peter Mandelson who famously said that New Labour was "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich - as long as they pay their taxes".

In his Sunday morning TV interview, seasoned Mandelson watchers - of which I count myself as one - could tell he was about to dump on Ed Miliband from a great height when he began his first answer by praising him.

Is he being fair? The noble Lord's detractors in the party - of whom there are many - will say he was pretty quiet during the election campaign.

Yet he's first out of the traps now the inquest into the defeat is underway.

It's the Blairite candidates, too, who have been quickest off the mark in declaring their intention to stand for the leadership.

But will it do them any good? Front-runners rarely win leadership elections in politics. Ask David Davis. And, of course, David Miliband.

So who are the runners and riders?

1. Liz Kendall: The Blairite shadow health minister has given the straightest answer about her intentions. Asked by interviewer Andrew Neil if she was standing, she said: "Yes".

2. Chuka Umunna: The highly rated shadow business secretary was pretty clear too, saying he wanted to play the "fullest part" in the rebuilding of the Labour Party.

3. Tristram Hunt: The shadow education secretary has spoken about making his voice heard, signalling that he too will be a candidate.

4. Yvette Cooper: The party’s most senior woman MP after Harriet Harman, who's not standing, is more likely to be a candidate now her husband Ed Balls is no longer an MP.

5. Andy Burnham: The shadow health secretary will have strong trade union support, making him the man to beat. But is he too associated with the past Labour government?

6. Angela Eagle: The shadow commons leader, to whom David Cameron said "Calm down, dear!", has said she will run for deputy leader and possibly leader. A better bet for deputy.

7. Dan Jarvis: The ex-Army officer who only became an MP less than five years ago in a by-election in Barnsley is a charismatic and articulate figure, but lacking in experience. He has since ruled himself out of the running.

In response to pressure from the Tories after the Falkirk parliamentary selection row, Ed Miliband moved to loosen the unions' grip on the election of the Labour leader.

But the likes of Paul Kenny and Len McCluskey of Unite remain the party's big paymasters and are unlikely to give up their influence without a fight.

Peter Mandelson complained in his TV interview about Unite and Unison putting photos of Ed Miliband in the envelopes they sent to union members back in 2010.

Don't underestimate the unions' determination to influence the result again in 2015.

The Blairites may have been the quickest off the mark in the leadership contest and the post-defeat recriminations.

But they won't have it their own way on either the future direction of the party or the election of the new leader.