Alastair Campbell and Alan Milburn to advise Ed Miliband, according to leaked plan that will infuriate party left
- Alastair Campbell's coming back: memo tells of Labour's election inner circle
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Secret memo on Labour's 2015 general election team – full document Alastair Campbell and Alan Milburn to advise Ed Miliband, according to leaked plan that will infuriate party left
- The Observer,
After what a source
said were heated arguments, deputy leader Harriet Harman will attend
weekly meetings. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA
New Labour big-hitters Alastair Campbell and Alan Milburn, as well as a batch of other advisers from the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown eras, are to make a dramatic return to Ed Miliband's general election team, according to a top-secret memo obtained by the Observer.
The document – Proposed General Election 2015 Meeting Structure – drawn up in the office of Douglas Alexander, chair of campaign strategy, will infuriate many on the party's left, who believed that Miliband had moved on from New Labour's approaches to campaigning and policy.
As well as detailing meetings between Campbell and the Labour leader, the memo says there will be a select "Sunday group" including two former aides to Peter Mandelson – Ben Wegg-Prosser and Patrick Loughran – Blair's former press officer, Matthew Doyle, and DJ Collins, another former adviser with New Labour links.
One senior Labour party figure described the three-page leak as "dynamite", saying it would intensify already bitter power struggles at the top of the party and exacerbate tensions over how ambitious and bold central policy messages should be over the next 17 months. "This is a power grab by Douglas," the source said. "It looks like a return to New Labour tactics, with the old caution and everything driven by focus groups. There will be a massive row about this. Key people look like they have been sidelined."
The blueprint, drawn up in the past few weeks, outlines a plan under which the main weekly direction of election planning was to have been set by an all-male group, made up only of Miliband, Alexander, former No 10 aide and now campaign director Spencer Livermore, party vice-chairman and chief attack dog Michael Dugher, and Miliband's chief of staff, Tim Livesey.
It suggests that the original intention was that key figures, including shadow chancellor Ed Balls and deputy leader Harriet Harman, would only have become involved in monthly strategy and "catch-up" meetings. After what one source said were heated arguments over "the exclusion of key people and lack of women", the monthly strategy meeting involving Balls, Harman and most of the shadow cabinet became weekly.
However, leading figures including Angela Eagle, chair of Labour's national policy forum, and Jon Cruddas, head of policy review, still have no involvement. Both refused to comment, but neither is likely to be happy if excluded from electoral planning while holding top positions.
A spokesman for Miliband confirmed that Campbell would return, but played down the roles of other New Labour figures in the memo, saying their contributions had yet to be finalised. The memo says there will be a monthly election "catch-up" meeting between a triumvirate of Campbell, Miliband and Alexander at Miliband's north London home.
Every six weeks, the memo says, there will be "Alan Milburn chats" between Miliband and the former health secretary, who helped to run Labour's 2005 campaign.
There will be weekly "war book" meetings – presumably detailing top-secret tactics – attended only by Alexander, Livermore and Miliband's head of strategy and planning, Greg Beales.
A party spokesman said: "This was an early note produced soon after the general election strategy chair [Alexander] and director [Livermore] were appointed looking at how to construct internal staff meetings while also drawing on past operational experience in general election campaigns.
"Discussions about the involvement of senior politicians in the campaign were happening in parallel and are not reflected in this note. Those discussions have resulted in the establishment of a general election strategy committee involving a number of members of the shadow cabinet."
The document – Proposed General Election 2015 Meeting Structure – drawn up in the office of Douglas Alexander, chair of campaign strategy, will infuriate many on the party's left, who believed that Miliband had moved on from New Labour's approaches to campaigning and policy.
As well as detailing meetings between Campbell and the Labour leader, the memo says there will be a select "Sunday group" including two former aides to Peter Mandelson – Ben Wegg-Prosser and Patrick Loughran – Blair's former press officer, Matthew Doyle, and DJ Collins, another former adviser with New Labour links.
One senior Labour party figure described the three-page leak as "dynamite", saying it would intensify already bitter power struggles at the top of the party and exacerbate tensions over how ambitious and bold central policy messages should be over the next 17 months. "This is a power grab by Douglas," the source said. "It looks like a return to New Labour tactics, with the old caution and everything driven by focus groups. There will be a massive row about this. Key people look like they have been sidelined."
The blueprint, drawn up in the past few weeks, outlines a plan under which the main weekly direction of election planning was to have been set by an all-male group, made up only of Miliband, Alexander, former No 10 aide and now campaign director Spencer Livermore, party vice-chairman and chief attack dog Michael Dugher, and Miliband's chief of staff, Tim Livesey.
It suggests that the original intention was that key figures, including shadow chancellor Ed Balls and deputy leader Harriet Harman, would only have become involved in monthly strategy and "catch-up" meetings. After what one source said were heated arguments over "the exclusion of key people and lack of women", the monthly strategy meeting involving Balls, Harman and most of the shadow cabinet became weekly.
However, leading figures including Angela Eagle, chair of Labour's national policy forum, and Jon Cruddas, head of policy review, still have no involvement. Both refused to comment, but neither is likely to be happy if excluded from electoral planning while holding top positions.
A spokesman for Miliband confirmed that Campbell would return, but played down the roles of other New Labour figures in the memo, saying their contributions had yet to be finalised. The memo says there will be a monthly election "catch-up" meeting between a triumvirate of Campbell, Miliband and Alexander at Miliband's north London home.
Every six weeks, the memo says, there will be "Alan Milburn chats" between Miliband and the former health secretary, who helped to run Labour's 2005 campaign.
There will be weekly "war book" meetings – presumably detailing top-secret tactics – attended only by Alexander, Livermore and Miliband's head of strategy and planning, Greg Beales.
A party spokesman said: "This was an early note produced soon after the general election strategy chair [Alexander] and director [Livermore] were appointed looking at how to construct internal staff meetings while also drawing on past operational experience in general election campaigns.
"Discussions about the involvement of senior politicians in the campaign were happening in parallel and are not reflected in this note. Those discussions have resulted in the establishment of a general election strategy committee involving a number of members of the shadow cabinet."
- COPY http://www.theguardian.com/
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