This morning’s news was dominated by Gordon Brown’s call for a “progressive alliance” in the Independent and Nick Clegg’s apparent rejection of Brown’s advances in the Telegraph.
The Guardian, however, led with a story claiming “cracks” in Labour’s campaign. The principle demonstration of this is the claim that the leading women in Labour are being sidelined in a male-dominated, economy-dominated campaign.
From the piece:
One cabinet source said: “There is a danger we look like the staid incumbents, as two other parties fight it out for the change vote. We need more edge.” Another source described the lack of women in the frontline of the campaign as “truly shocking”, and said the party needed to take a more distinctive approach.
They would like to see Harriet Harman, the deputy party leader, who fronted a low-key event yesterday, and Yvette Cooper, the work and pensions secretary, given a more prominent role.
So is there substance behind this? Probably. But Labour advisers point out that the economy — and therefore Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown and arch-strategist Peter Mandelson — are bound to dominate. What, though, of Harman and Cooper specifically? The latter, after all, was caught on camera complaining in a note that she had been relegated to a “second division” press conference.
On that, a well placed source who has spoken to Cooper since then says that she “genuinely” only wrote that out of “self-deprecation”.
Meanwhile, Harman has issued a denial that she is being “sidelined” in a an interview with me out later. Watch this space.
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