THE BATTLE for the leadership of the British Labour Party will intensify today with the expected decision of the country’s largest trades union, Unite to back Ed Miliband in a move which has seriously damaged the hopes of another one of the candidates, Ed Balls, who had placed his hopes on getting the union’s endorsement.
The executive of the union, which is currently embroiled in a long-running dispute with British Airways, is due to recommend to its one million members to back Mr Miliband, the brother of another one of the candidates, the former Foreign Secretary, David, though members are free to make their own decision in the race, which ends with the party’s conference in September.
Former schools secretary, Mr Balls, who trails the leading candidates in the number of endorsements from Labour constituency organisations, MPs and MEPs and unions, rejected speculation that he will pull out of the five-way race: “I’m fighting to the end and I’m fighting to win, because the question for the Labour party and for the country is: who is best placed to take the argument to the Conservatives and the Liberals?”
Unite, he said, had made its decision to back the younger Miliband on the basis that he is the best person to beat his brother.
The Unite executive made its overwhelming decision to favour Ed Miliband despite heavy lobbying by Charlie Whelan, a powerful figure in the union and a former colleague of both Mr Balls and Gordon Brown.
Meanwhile, former Labour chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling said he regretted that he had not won the argument within the Labour cabinet before the election to raise VAT – a move that was strongly opposed by Mr Brown and Mr Balls, who feared it would scupper the party’s chances in the general election campaign.
“It’s no secret, I said at the time and since Peter [Mandelson] has actually spelt out in gory detail, I’m not going to deny what was patently true. There’s a choice really, you can put up VAT or you can put up an income-related tax . . . The advantage of VAT is it brings in a lot of money.”
