Labour leader Ed Miliband has resolved to take his party critics head on with a message that Labour has to reinvent its appeal to the public and move on from the past.
Amid public and private mutterings from disaffected figures that his two-month leadership has allowed the party to drift, Mr Miliband is determined to put down a “sullen revolution” fomenting in his Shadow Cabinet.
In a keynote speech to the party’s National Policy Forum (Saturday November 27) he aims to underline the need to create a fresh political culture which re-connects with roots in the community which were torn up under the fractious infighting and mistakes of the New Labour years.
Against pressure to make a symbolic shift to the right, he will defiantly defend the relationship between Labour and the trade unions, while acknowledging concerns over a leadership voting system that allows multiple votes for individual members.
Mr Miliband is said by close colleagues to be dismayed since his return from paternity leave by the “negativity and short-sightedness” of some MPs and commentators who are calling for instant definitions of party policies at the start of what may be five years in opposition.
Critics fear that he has scored an own goal with the statement in an interview that party policy reform starts with a “blank page” – a phrase seized on repeatedly by David Cameron during Prime Minister’s Questions. But he will be arguing that the Labour Party has to look at every area of policy in order to place it at the “centre of gravity of British politics”, a place not represented by the coalition Government.
Mr Miliband has appointed shadow ministers Peter Hain, newly-appointed chair of the policy forum, and Liam Byrne to oversee a one-year review of party structures – including the electoral college used to elect leaders – and a two-year policy review.
Sources close to Mr Miliband insisted that, while the voting system will change, the trade union link will be preserved.
They refused to rule out changes to how political levy-paying union members vote in Labour elections, saying it was “a consultation, not a bounce”.
The party reforms will be voted on at next year’s conference.
A senior union source said they were relaxed with the process: “The unions are comfortable with the process and are happy to discuss the position in the Labour Party, but we should not mistake the sour grapes of the Blairites with a genuine desire for reform within the party.”
Meanwhile, Mr Miliband and the Shadow Cabinet plan to travel up and down the country listening to the concerns of ordinary members of the public as they seek to speak up for overlooked middle income households.
