‘You’ve gone backwards!’ BBC host skewers Ed Miliband over Labour Party struggles

Ed Miliband discusses Labour’s ‘progress’

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Miliband was invited onto BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to discuss the state of the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer. Host Nick Robinson left the former Labour leader squirming after putting to him that the party had “gone backwards” since his time in charge. Labour suffered a series of humiliating election setbacks in the local elections, with voters rejecting the party in favour of the Conservatives in the Hartlepool by-election.

Discussing Mr Miliband’s time as Labour leader at the 2015 General Election, Mr Robinson asked: “It is fair to say that since then your party had actually gone backwards not forwards.

“And do you need to tell your activists that?”

“I don’t see it that way,” replied Miliband.

The host jumped in and asked: “Well, what progress have you made since you stopped being leader, what has got better?”

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Mr Miliband responded: “Well, we lost the elections in 2017 and 2019 absolutely we lost that election.”

Once again Mr Robinson presses the former Labour leader what had improved since he quit the top job in the party.

He replied: “I’ll tell you what I think is that in 2017 as opposed to 2019 there was a greater boldness about our programme.

“Now we did not win the election and therefore we did not succeed, of course, we did not succeed.”

Mr Miliband added: “We have lost four elections in a row.

“I think there are lessons to learn from my experience as leader and from other experiences of leaders.

“But what  I am interested in Nick is what we do now.

“You don’t blow the finals whistle a third of the way through the match which is where we are probably in this parliament.”

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It comes as former Shadow Chancellor McDonnell told LBC’s Ian Dale on Tuesday Jeremy Corbyn should be welcomed back as a Labour MP: “He (Corbyn) still hasn’t got the whip back and again I think that is a real mistake by Keir.

“Just drop it and let him back in the party.”

Mr McDonnell explained: “He just needs the Chief Whip and the Leader to say come back. 

“And Jeremy would be like a shot back but I don’t understand why they’ve done that to him.”

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