Labour front-runner David Miliband looks to Keir Hardie and history

Published: 27 August, 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

LABOUR Party activists saluted “the Jose Mourinho of politics”, as fellow MP and ex-home secretary Alan Johnson dubbed David Miliband, in what has been heralded the most important speech of his career at King Solomon Academy on Wednesday evening.

The front-runner in the Labour leadership contest (above) told members to “drive the Tories out of power”, by taking the party back to its roots in local communities and shifting the centre ground in British politics.

Speaking to about 300 members at the Marylebone school he said: “A bold programme of policies and ideas will be a flash in the pan unless it is created and carried forward by a renewed labour movement.

We must express our political souls as much by the character and culture of our party, as any policy or programme.

“Our movement was founded on the dignity of hard work, on family, and respect for others, patriotism without jingoism, neighbourliness, place and belonging.

“Methodism more than Marxism. Keir Hardie’s legacy is that we are not subjects to be pushed around by the state, nor commodities to be bought and sold by the market.

So the Labour Party must live among the people share their hopes and aspirations, represent their voice in the democratic life of our nation.”