Ed Miliband has made a great start. His shadow ministerial appointments were savvy and sexy. He bested David Cameron at his first Prime Minister’s Questions. He has apparently stamped his authority on the Shadow Cabinet, outlawing background briefing and factions. “What more could anyone have asked for?” said one MP.
Try this: definition. Along with “biography” and “narrative”, “definition” jostles for position at the top of the spin-doctors lexicon. Biography is who your subject actually is. Alan Johnson is the orphan who delivered letters to Number 10 when he was a postman, and ended up walking through the front door a Cabinet minister – not the former grammar schoolboy and trade union baron. Narrative is their story. Where are they going? Tony Blair, master of narrative, was recasting solid traditional Labour values in a modern setting. He wasn’t ditching everything his party held dear to win 50 new seats in the south of England. “Definition” is a signature and a political imprimatur. And it’s what Ed Miliband lacks.
For a new party leader, definition acts like quick drying cement. They have a short space of time to mould it. But once set, it’s set in stone. A good rule of thumb is that you have 12 weeks before you are defined. That is the window of opportunity. You, your opponents and events will engage in a desperate tug of war. Define or be defined. It is a vital, often decisive struggle.
Blair was a case study in how to do definition. Spitting Image began by showing him dressed as a schoolboy sitting on John Prescott’s lap. Three months later, the uniform had gone. Blair was now depicted with a manic, steely-eyed grin and a Peter Mandelsonesque python draped across his shoulders. As Blair himself was able to joke: “From Bambi to Stalin in 12 months.” The Tories weren’t laughing. At the other end of the scale was William Hague. The word was that Hague was young, inexperienced and out of touch. His spin-doctor, Amanda Platell, knew just how to re-cast him as the man a nation could trust. She put him a baseball cap and sent him down a log flume at Alton Towers.
Members of Ed Miliband’s inner circle are reluctant to play this game. “That’s the old politics”, says one. “We’re just going to let Ed be Ed”, according to another. Fine. But which Ed is Ed? Is it “Nice Guy Eddie”, who gave senior Shadow Cabinet positions to his leadership rivals and their lieutenants? Is it “Dirty Ed”, who ruthlessly blocked Nick Brown from becoming Chief Whip? Is it “Red Ed”, praised by Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson as someone who “understands the vital role of trade unionism and stands for traditional Labour values”? Or is he “Steady Eddie”, lauded by the Daily Telegraph for “defending the middle classes” over child benefit.
These are still early days and Ed Miliband wants to keep his options open. But he also knows the decisions he takes now will follow him all the way to the next general election in 2015. There are three key areas he needs to prioritise. “Red Ed” must be put to the sword. Among his team, there is a belief that the tag is so ludicrous it will simply drift away. It won’t. Cameron is going to take the gloves off. And “Red Ed” is too big a target to miss. Like it or not, he will have to win at least one symbolic fight on his left flank before he gets that pernicious monkey off his back.
The “new generation” also requires work. It has the potential to represent an exciting renewal of the faded New Labour brand. But at the moment it is a confused abstraction. Is Neil Kinnock a symbol of this new generation? Is Gillian Duffy? There’s a swathe of 50-something Labour MPs who want answers on this and reassurances they are not about to be confined to the scrapheap.
The third, and perhaps most crucial, area relates to the deficit. In his conference speech, Ed Miliband embraced pragmatism. But since then, he has allowed his party to charge vigorously at every cut waved before it; child benefit, tuition fees, any of the universal benefits. The appointment of Alan Johnson was seen as a signal he was signing up to Alistair Darling’s deficit reduction timetable. But others close to the leader are insisting he will be very much his own man when it comes to economic policy. Deficit denier or deficit conservative? This, above all others, will be the choice that defines Ed Miliband. Because defined he will be. By the turn of the year, the cement will be dry. Labour’s new leader will be a fixture in the public’s consciousness. He will only get one chance to make his first impression. He must take it.
Dan Hodges was a member of David Miliband’s leadership election support team
