Luvvies for Labour

2 May

 

• A celebrity rally is trumped by the arrival of the royal baby.

 

• News of a less welcome arrival – Labour’s ‘tablet of stone’ – begins to leak out.

 

• Labour falls behind the Conservatives in key seats.

 

 

‘I HAVEN’T SLEPT. I flew directly from LA to come here and show my support for Labour.’ So said a hirsute Jason Isaacs who was hosting a celebrity-packed late-afternoon rally in central London. The venue was the Royal Horticultural Halls, a stone’s throw away from Westminster and presumably Labour wanted to show that their support was blossoming. Like the Holywood actor Jason Isaacs, I too had flown in to London, hadn’t slept much and felt a bit jet lagged. But I hadn’t wafted in from paradise – I had flown here from Glasgow Airport.

It’s just that after the longest ‘short’ campaign in living memory, politicians and journalists were feeling somewhat jaded and perhaps that’s not the best time to make big decisions. Labour had almost been saved from themselves, but not quite. Outside the rally I ran in to Tom Baldwin who told me that tomorrow would see the unveiling of what had been dubbed the ‘Torstone’ – an eight-foot and six-inches-high limestone plinth which would have Labour’s election pledges inscribed on it. It had gained its nickname from its creator Torsten Bell, Labour’s policy and rebuttal director. The beast had already been filmed that morning in Hastings, but the pictures were under strict embargo until tomorrow.

Now, today you just couldn’t give news away. The royal baby had arrived and party politics had been put on hold. Coverage of the celebrity rally had been pulled. Viewers were denied seeing Ronnie O’Sullivan try to snooker the Conservatives, or to hear Paul O’Grady verbally savage – or should that be ‘Lily’ Savage – the chancellor, combined with the threat or promise (depending on your politics) to move to Italy if the coalition returned to power. So had Labour unveiled their latest initiative today it may well have sunk… like a Torstone.

After the rally I was ushered in to the Green Room by Labour’s broadcasting chief Matthew Laza to try to set up an interview with Isaacs for Radio Five Live the next day, as it was assumed normal political service would be resumed once the regal progeny had been given a name, or several. Miliband’s inner circle were nibbling on a buffet. I spoke briefly to Ed Miliband himself who asked me how I thought it was going. I answered honestly that it had been a well-run campaign but that wouldn’t necessarily determine the outcome. We had a brief chat about Jason Isaacs’s speech, which Miliband had missed, and the Labour Party pension scheme (sic). The mood was downbeat as, that weekend, Labour’s internal polls were suggesting that it was only ‘50/50’ that Miliband could make it to Downing Street as the Conservatives were likely to be clearly ahead in the number of seats.

Despite what some published polls were saying, Labour’s own research suggested they were now falling behind in key English marginals. The SNP issue – despite the Labour leader ruling out any form of deal in the most robust form possible – was still seen to be hitting them hard. But even the comfort blanket of knowing that the party had fought a slick and professional campaign was about to be stripped from him.