Labour no longer loves Mandy

In YouGov’s Labour leadership survey, the headline figure of which saw David Miliband lead his brother Ed 54 per cent to 46 per cent (see my earlier post here), the Labour Party members and trade unionists polled were asked whether they thought a series of Labour figures – none of whom are standing for the leadership – are an asset or a liability.

Of the seven – Gordon Brown, Yvette Cooper, Jon Cruddas, Alistair Darling, Harriet Harman, Alan Johnson, Peter Mandelson and Dennis Skinner – only one suffered the ignominy of a negative net rating; that man is Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham, until May the Lord President of the Council, First Secretary of State, and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Sixty one per cent of both trade unionists and Labour Party members think him a liability, against only 25 per cent of Labour Party affiliated trade unionists and 29 per cent of Labour Party members who think him an asset – a result, no doubt, of his perceived ‘treachery’ in publishing his memoirs so soon after Labour’s defeat and in the middle of the leadership contest.

Tony Blair famously once said the New Labour project would only be complete when the party “learned to love Peter Mandelson”, which it did indeed seem to do from last September’s conference speech through to the general election; now, however, from being loved he’s turned into a liability. C’est la vie!