Ed Miliband has been slammed for ‘an unforgivably unprofessional campaign’ after the Labour leader didn’t know his own living cost during an ITV interview this week.
MP for Blackley and Broughton Graham Stringer blames Miliband for causing the party to underperform in terms of its policies and the local elections.
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Stringer said the Labour leader has failed to communicate the party’s message and ‘doesn’t have an immediate appeal to the electorate’.
The longstanding Miliband critic has attacked the Labour leader’s performance after he appeared to not know his own living cost whilst appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier this week.
Miliband suggested that his weekly grocery bill was in the region of £70-£80, whilst ITV presenter Charlotte Hawkins revealed that the average cost for a family of four was around £100.
Stringer, a former Cabinet Office minister in the early years of Tony Blair’s Labour government, described Miliband’s early morning blunder as a ‘professional gaffe’.
Speaking to the BBC, Stringer said: “In the middle of a campaign, if that is the central issue, then you really should find out about it. That is a professional mistake.”
The 64-year-old has also gone on to question the role of Labour’s new election strategist David Axelrod, who was previously a top political advisor to Bill Clinton and campaign advisor to Barack Obama during his successful 2008 campaign.
Stringer told the BBC: “I don’t really understand what the position of Axelrod is. Whether he’s there as a bit of a comfort blanket and a bit of a PR exercise, or whether he’s really going to take charge of the campaign. But somebody should.”
Overnight the criticism of the Labour leader has been followed by a scare for Labour in Bolton where UKIP have gained their first two council seats in the borough.
The results for Manchester are expected at 2pm today.
Image courtesy of Help Beth, via Youtube, with thanks
