The indomitable Paul Waugh has unearthed figures from the YouGov survey in the weekend’s Sunday Times which he says show that David Miliband has “emerged as the front-runner among both voters and party activists”.
From the blog:
A new poll also found that Mr Miliband was Londoners’ favoured choice for the top job, with Diane Abbott second and his brother Ed trailing in third.
The YouGov survey put him on 22 per cent, Ms Abbott on 11 per cent, Ed Miliband on 9 per cent, Ed Balls on 3 per cent and Andy Burnham on 2 per cent.
Crucially, Miliband Senior was also ahead among Labour voters. He was on 29 per cent, with Mr Balls second on 13 per cent and Ed Miliband third on 12 per cent.
New figures obtained by the Standard also put the former foreign secretary ahead of his rivals in Constituency Labour Party nominations.
With only a week to go before constituency nominations close, he has 107 parties behind him, nearly as many as all his fellow contenders combined.
Brother Ed has 84 local parties backing him, Mr Burnham has 21, Ms Abbott 14 and Mr Balls just nine.
Labour will announce its new leader at its annual conference in September after a one-member, one-vote ballot of party members, union affiliates and MPs and MEPs.
The YouGov/SundayTimes poll found that Mr Miliband was ahead in every social class, gender, age group and region of the country.
Ms Abbott, who has a national profile because of her regular slot on BBC1’s This Week programme, was second among virtually every group apart from Labour voters.
Mr Balls, who has been hitting the coalition government hard over the school buildings fiasco, appears to have been rewarded with a spike in support among Labour supporters.
The popularity of Miliband Senior among wider voters also suggests that he may do better than expected in the trade union membership section of the electoral college. However, brother Ed won the backing of the GMB last week and Mr Balls is also expected to do well among unions.
A spokeswoman for Mr Miliband said: “The number of CLP nominations we’ve garnered suggests that David is actually the grass roots’ choice.”
One source also said that the local party nominations suggested Mr Balls was “not really in the running among members”, a claim his camp disputes.
Three striking elements to this: first, David Miliband is doing well among the grass roots for a man often dismissed as a “Blairite”. Second, Diane Abbott is, as I predicted last month, apparently doing better than expected. And third, as supporters of “the two Eds” — Miliband and Balls — are pointing out in Westminster, this poll should be taken with a tiny pinch of salt, in that Labour voters, who do not have votes in this contest, are not the same as Labour members, who do.
UPDATE: Although it is true that “voters aren’t members”, as some rivals to the front-runner, David Miliband, have been pointing out, it is also worth emphasising that the 107 CLP nominations, as mentioned above, are highly significant. They, after all, are Labour members.
Look out for an exclusive interview package with all five candidates in this week’s magazine, out on Thursday.
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