Ed Miliband's G4S nightmare over party conference security

Kevin Maguire's commons confidential.

By Kevin Maguire Published 25 July 2012

The name of the firm hired to provide security at this autumn’s Labour conference? Photograph: Getty Images

Ed Miliband may have left himself exposed after demanding that G4S, winner of Olympic gold for corporate incompetence, be suspended from bidding for public contracts. The name of the firm hired to provide security at this autumn’s Labour conference? G4S. Should Ed Mili hear the snap of rubber gloves being pulled on for a strip search after he’s called out of the line, he should take it personally.

David Cameron will be shedding no tears this summer for Bob Diamond. Indeed, I hear the Prime Spinner chuckled when the shamed former Barclays boss proved Diamonds aren’t for ever. The PM has the prodigious memory of an elephant and the thin skin of a butterfly wing. He recalls, I’m told, an occasion when Diamond treated him like a failed bond dealer in front of officials during a No 10 summit. He who laughs last, etc.

The Tory infantryman Tobias Ellwood, on the other hand, has a suspect memory. The one-time Royal Green Jackets captain was overheard expressing pride in troops parading under Big Ben. Hmm . . . the Bournemouth blusterer led the campaign to rename the Clock Tower the Elizabeth Tower in honour of Her Maj. Capt Ellwood’s failure to use the correct designation suggests it’ll never catch on.

The sad death at 57 of Marsha Singh, four months after he resigned in Bradford West, prompted a Labour snout to mutter that the ex-MP’s passing proved Harriet Harman wrong. Bradford’s by-election brought the third coming of “Gorgeous George” Galloway after he showed no Respect to Labour’s candidate, Imran Hussain. Harperson had questioned Singh’s retirement on grounds of ill-health, suggesting it smacked of an old-fashioned fix to deliver the seat to Hussain after she failed to secure a women-only shortlist. The end of Singh, a kindly man, settles that.

Disbelief, too, at Labour HQ that Alun Michael, who wants to be police commissioner of South Wales, is claiming that it would’ve been a fix to use a wimmin-only list to select a replacement in his seat of Cardiff South and Penarth. Michael was the beneficiary of the mother of all Millbank fixes that foisted him on an unwelcoming electorate as the first first minister of Wales. By happy coincidence, the Labour standardbearer selected for the looming byelection, Stephen Doughty, was championed by Michael. No stitch-up there, then.

The Labour warhorse David Winnick has been asking why Cameron is accompanied by armed detectives in secure parts of the House of Commons restricted to MPs. The PM may be more wary of right-whingers than we appreciated.

The parliamentary pop group MP4 is printing T-shirts for a tour of the Labour, Con and SNP conferences. No Lib Dem gig? The Labour guitarist Kevin Brennan replied it was cancelled due to lack of principles. Ouch!

This column is taking its usual summer break and will be back before the TUC in the autumn. Kevin Maguire is associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror

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8 comments

Tue, 2012-07-31 22:19 — Alasdair (not verified)

Oh for God's sake, enough with the 'Harperson' stuff. It's neither clever nor funny. I'm used to that tired gag from rightwing writers, but I'd expect the Statesman to have slightly more self-respect...

Mon, 2012-07-30 15:37 — mittfh

Erm, don't all three main parties have problems with principles? Never mind several policy areas that they all appear to share to a greater or lesser degree - for example welfare reform and the increasing Academisation of schools appear to be accelerated versions of New Labour policies, while back in 200-7, before the recession hit, the Tories were saying they'd stick to Labour's spending plans for the first few years of their government if elected.

Meanwhile, we have a coalition where the Tories moan that the Lib Dems have too much say in policies, while the Lib Dems moan they haven't got enough say (or that the Tories agree to something the Lib Dems want then backtrack later). George keeps saying he'll cut spending (and indeed local authorities are facing 20% budget cuts over this parliament, and probably a similar level in the next), but overall spending hasn't declined much.

Mon, 2012-07-30 02:39 — Silican (not verified)

G4S will be perfect for Ed's shindig. Their experience torturing Palestinian children will come in handy when Ed wants some time on his own, he just has to think of it as solitary confinement with room service. Labour, the party where morals are a misspelt mushroom that's kept growing with Ed's odure.