The Tory press hopes to shove the Labour party to the Right
Not content with telling people how to vote in the election, the Tory press is now looking to ensure the Labour party chooses a candidate it likes.
Thus we’ve seen positive coverage of so-called Blairite contenders such as Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna (who has dropped out of the race and endorsed Kendall) and hostile coverage of the supposedly ‘Left’ contenders such as Andy Burnham.
The Times and the Telegraph ran cheerful profiles about the ‘refreshing’ Ms Kendall. Even the Sun gave the ‘bold’ MP for Leicester the sort of warm coverage usually reserved for the Conservatives, as she ‘trashed most of Ed Miliband’s policies’ and backed free schools and more defence spending.
Meanwhile, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, who has secured the backing of more Labour MPs, is bloodied in the familiar style of the general election coverage.
Today’s Sun is an exaggerated form of the general trope:
“Andy Burnham today makes a desperate bid to prove he is not a union puppet.”
That’s not from an editorial column. It’s the first line of a news story.
Despite the facts being much the same – criticism of Ed Miliband and Labour’s past, pro-business talk – the contrast with the Kendall coverage is striking. The paper pulls Burnham apart for ‘aiming to woo business’ after ‘speculation Mr Burnham is Unite union chief Len McCluskey‘s choice as leader’.
The Sun says column lays it out:
“The hasty U-turn by top Labour MPs since their election disaster is jaw-dropping.
Who knows now what Andy Burnham actually stands for? One minute he’s Ed Miliband’s class-war henchman. The next he claims ‘the entrepreneur will be as much our hero as the nurse’ and admits Labour DID spend too much.
Pull the other one. And let’s see him say it to Red Len McCluskey’s face.”
(The U-turn point is interesting. If MPs had stuck to their previous positions, the same papers would be saying they are ignoring the verdict of the electorate, and had learned nothing from past mistakes.)
The piece goes on to praise Caroline Flint, who is running for deputy leader:
“Caroline Flint was another Miliband front-bencher. But there’s a difference between her and Burnham when she says she wants to appeal to Sun readers. She sounds genuine.”
What has Caroline Flint done to please the Sun? Under the Burnham news story, a piece on Ms Flint begins:
“Labour needs to start attacking benefits scroungers as much as bankers if it wants to regain power, says shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint.
The party’s deputy-leader hopeful said it must speak to Sun readers and aspirational voters once more.
She added the party should be comfortable giving a ‘kick up the backside’ to those choosing to live on benefits.”
Note the contrast here. Flint is praised for sounding ‘genuinely’ more conservative than Burnham.
Meanwhile, I’ve not seen any coverage of another ‘deputy leader hopeful’: the high profile Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy, who received an increased majority on a joint Labour and Co-operative Party ticket in the general election.
Ms Creasy is thought to be on the Left of the party, and is probably best known for taking on payday loan scammers Wonga.
She ‘sounds genuine’ too, though I won’t hold my breath about Sun coverage.
Because what we see is the right-wing press hoping to move the Labour party to the right, and influence the terms not just of the leadership election debate but of future general elections.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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62 Responses to “Never mind the unions. What about the Sun’s influence on the Labour leadership contest?”
gunnerbear
But every time Burnham stands up, the Press and those on the govt. benches will continue to bring up his record of privatisation in the NHS, the debacle that became Hitchingbrooke and of course…..Mid Staffs. For the Blues….Burnham will be the gift that keeps on giving. As a NOTA voter, if the Reds pick AB, I reckon they’ll have lost their collective heads.
gunnerbear
Yep….I live in an area where there is a major industrial employer and the seat has been Red Mob for decades yet in this election, the Blue + Purple vote was more than the Reds. If the Conservatives and UKIP had got their act together, they could have removed a Labour MP and most likely done so with ease. As it happens I like my local MP – he works hard for the area and is a fairly decent guy! However, once Labour threw open the doors to all and sundry to come to the UK – for what ever reason – it effectively started it’s own decline. I know of former solid Red Mob voters who will now never, ever vote Red – because immigration has made competition for the ‘entry level’ jobs that their children would have taken, utterly ferocious – and that’s even if their children can even get near to getting in a foot in the door as all the agency positions seem to be dominated by non-natives. From a standing start, the UKIP vote in the area I live is about half that of the Labour MP. Labour – for whatever reason – has decisively turned its back on its former voters and now strives to appeal to the white collar brigade in the public and private sectors – the middle managers and teachers and the like. Labour has binned off the very people it was supposed to represent – are people who work in assorted trades and do manual work and have socially conservative views towards law and order now seen as an embarrassment to the Party?
WhiteVanMan
john Cruddas said in the sun he wanted to appeal to sun readers, he’s hardly new labour more blue Labour,and blue Labour founder lord Glasman, is backing Liz
Ben Bradshaw the Blairite deputy choice ,hasn’t got the appeal of the Sun/Mail, Luke Akehurst former Blairite I’d backing Tom Watson,
WhiteVanMan
Refused buying Manchester United, wouldn’t let him have shares For BSkyB
WhiteVanMan
wTF