PRESS RELEASE ON ELECTION OF ED MILIBAND AS LABOUR LEADER

"We would like to congratulate Ed Miliband on his election as Leader of the Labour Party.

We are pleased to hear that he now backs fairer votes as the first stage of reform to fix our broken system, and also to hear that he wants to move away from punch and judy politics. Most importantly that he recognises the need for Labour to come up with a credible economic policy that ensures a good standard of living for future generations.

The latest YouGov opinion poll tells us that 59% of people agree that Labour has “seriously lost touch with ordinary working people”; 70% agree that “Labour need to make major changes to their policies and beliefs to be fit for government again” (including half of all Labour voters); 61% agree that “Labour still haven’t faced up to the damage they did to the British economy” and half agree that “If Labour returned to government they would put the country into even more debt”.

As well as this, less than a quarter of Merton's Labour Party members voted for Ed Miliband - but nearly twice as many backed David Miliband. This was repeated up and down the country, where Labour party members clearly wanted David to lead them. So he's got some work to do.

At this stage we must admit to being sceptical of Ed's boast that he is from a "new generation" of Labour politicians. He was at the heart of the New Labour project as an economic adviser to Gordon Brown from 1997. He went on to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, responsible for long term economic planning in 2004. He was parachuted into a safe seat and was quickly appointed as minister in Brown's cabinet. He wrote the 2010 Labour party election manifesto.

He has now distanced himself from the Iraq War - yet where was his voice of dissent within the Labour Party - both from outside and inside government? The Liberal Democrats were the only main party campaigning against the war, but Ed voted AGAINST requiring Parliament to approve the deployment of our armed forces, and AGAINST an investigation into the Iraq War.

Nonetheless, we wish him well with the challenges ahead; want to see a new type of politics where people from all parties and none come together to try to sort the country's problems.

Merton Liberal Democrats”