David Miliband tests Brown with call for ‘radical new phase’

Downing Street strategists knew they were in for a bloody weekend after Labour’s Glasgow East by-election catastrophe. But they believed the storm would blow itself over by the weekend - and reassured Gordon Brown he could expect some respite as the week wore on.

The Prime Minister, hunkered down in his Suffolk holiday bunker, is still waiting for that to happen. He will have been aghast to learn that David Miliband comes close to flying the flag of rebellion in the Guardian today by setting out his personal vision for Labour, leaving no doubt that he is preparing to stand for the leadership if Brown is forced out of Number 10.

While Miliband is not overtly disloyal to the PM in urging a "radical new phase" of government, his calls for clarity of leadership will be seen (certainly in Southwold) as criticism of Brown’s leadership style. "When people hear exaggerated claims, either about failure or success, they switch off," he writes. "To get our message across, we must be more humble about our shortcomings but more compelling about our achievements.

"With hindsight, we should have got on with reforming the NHS sooner. We needed better planning for how to win the peace in Iraq, not just win the war. We should have devolved more power away from Whitehall and Westminster. We needed a clearer drive towards becoming a low-carbon, energy-efficient economy, not just to tackle climate change but to cut energy bills." Etcetera, etcetera.

The timing of the article is critical. It comes as the balance of opinion in the party continues to tilt against the Prime Minister - I am told I was being slightly too generous to him when I reported on Friday that one-third of the Cabinet had lost confidence in him. Half the Cabinet is nearer the mark.

Though Harriet Harman has denied widespread reports that she exclaimed to aides "this is my moment" while watching TV reports of the Glasgow East defeat - "I am not preparing the ground for a leadership election," she insisted yesterday - it is impossible to find a Labour MP who does not believe she will throw her hat in the ring if Brown is forced by his critics to step aside. So will Jack Straw, whose declaration of loyalty to Brown had to be dragged out of him after 48 hours’ delay.

As for Miliband, his Guardian piece is just the beginning. He is planning a series of 'outreach' tours of the country before party conference in September, which he insists are designed to inform the masses about the work of the Foreign Office. If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.

With Ed Balls and Jon Cruddas preparing to join the fray, a five-way battle for the leadership is in prospect. Most intriguing is the position of the Health Secretary Alan Johnson who repeatedly stresses his lack of interest in the top job to anyone who will listen. And yet, as a self-appointed backbench champion of the Health Secretary says: "If Alan was begged to stand in the interests of the party, I can’t believe he’d say no. He is the best hope we have got."

THE MOLE: PM UNDER SIEGE

FIRST POSTED JULY 30, 2008