“Prince of Darkness” trying to pull the strings

Mandelson weighs in with a suggested “Miliband for Leader”

National newspapers this morning are still reporting on the growing swell of opinion within the Labour Party that is calling for South Shields’ MP David Miliband to stand against Gordon Brown for the party leadership when Tony Blair steps down.

This from Jackie Ashley’s report in this morning’s Guardian;

So where does that leave the case for a contest? There is something a little sneaky about the way it has been touted. Peter Mandelson said yesterday that a contest would be useful to attract the public’s attention, and to force Brown to be more explicit about what he stands for. What’s sneaky about it is that the anti-Brownites want a contest for a third reason, the most obvious one, which is to stop Brown becoming leader.

They don’t want to run David Miliband to flush out the chancellor, or to help the general image of the party. They want him to become prime minister, hoping that poll-induced panic leads to a sudden change of heart throughout the parliamentary Labour party. There’s a good reason that Miliband’s name is the one on their lips, not, for instance, Charles Clarke’s or Alan Milburn’s. It is because they think he could, with the wind behind him, beat Brown while the others could not.

The Times reports that Jack Straw, Gordon Brown’s “campaign manager” dismisses Blair’s support for Miliband (but that’s to be expected) and goes on to note the comments from “The Prince of Darkness” Peter Mandelson;

Asked if he backed Mr Miliband, Mr Mandelson said: “Excuse me if I do not get involved with personalities.” But he added: “What I would like to see is not our generation determining this, I would like to see the new generation of younger Labour MPs deciding for themselves who they want to see leading the Labour Party and for them to take, you know, be on the front foot and what sort of Labour Party and what sort of direction it should take.”

A clear signal that a younger fresher leader is what the Blairites are looking for, the odd thing is that their sister paper The Sun calls Mandelson “scheming” stating that;

EU Commissioner Mandy, reopening his 13-year-feud with the Chancellor, claimed voters do not know what he stands for.

Odd, now that we all know that Mandelson can’t be sacked from his job (he has already announced his intention to quit) that The Sun should take such a disparaging view of him, he’s only trying to exert a little influence after all!

Thanks to Beau Bo D’or for a little help with the image.