Jim Murphy brands Tim Farron a “sanctimonious little plotter“

The shadow defence secretary is not impressed by the Lib Dem president's paean of praise to Ed Miliband in the New Statesman.

By George Eaton

Ed Miliband is yet to respond to Tim Farron’s paean of praise to him in this week’s New Statesman, but shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy has let it be known that he’s not impressed.

Farron told me:

I really like Ed Miliband, so I don’t want to diss him. I don’t want join in with the Tories who compare him to Kinnock.

He went on to praise Miliband as a model progressive:

First of all, he’s a polite and nice person. I think he is somebody who is genuinely of the Robin Cook wing of the Labour Party, from their perspective what you’d call the ‘soft left’. Somebody who is not a Luddite on environmental issues, somebody who’s open minded about modernising our democracy, somebody who’s instinctively a bit more pluralistic than most Labour leaders and a bit more internationalist as well. And they’re other things too. For all that I think he could have done a lot more on the AV campaign, he did at least have the backbone to come out and back it.

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He mischievously added:

And they’re other things too. For all that I think he could have done a lot more on the AV campaign, he did at least have the backbone to come out and back it. He wouldn’t share a platform with Nick [Clegg], so he ended up with me, poor thing. I like the guy.

As Farron knows, should Miliband refuse to form a coalition with Clegg in 2015, he could well end up with him again. It was this that prompted Murphy’s Twitter put-down this morning.

I really like Tim Farron so don’t want to diss him. I don’t want join in with the public who compare him to a sanctimonious little plotter.

— Jim Murphy (@jimmurphymp) September 12, 2013

To which Farron gracefully replied:

@jimmurphymp There goes our friends forever collage….

— Tim Farron (@timfarron) September 12, 2013

For the benefit of those who missed the interview (picked-up in today’s Guardian), Murphy later added:

Appears twitter doesn’t translate insider irony. You’d have to know what Tim Farron is up to in the New Statesman to u’stand my last tweet.

— Jim Murphy (@jimmurphymp) September 12, 2013