David Miliband elected as Leader of the Labour Party instead of Ed

[Kamala]

Had David Miliband won the 2010 Leadership election for the Labour Party instead of his brother Ed, could the 2015 election have ended up differently? Would he have been a stronger party leader than Ed, or does he have more baggage than him?

[PoliticalShelter]

I don't think David would of done any better than Ed to be quite frank. His biggest problem is that he has a lot more New Labour baggage on issues like Iraq and torture (and the chumminess with the Murdoch empire when the phone hacking scandal comes out). He can easily be criticised for not having the bottle to challenge Brown while he had the chance.

His only advantage is that he comes across as more credible than Ed, however he does not come across as anymore likeable (and frankly a lot less). There would be more of a "all the major parties are the same" feeling amongst the public and would lead to more support for the greens and ukip (mostly at Labour's expense) which would counter any gains David might make with swing voters.

[Kingpoleon]

Liberal Democrats, Greens, and UKIP all do better.

[brucejoel99]

David Miliband probably would've done slightly better than Ed but only slightly; the fundamentals were against Labour (not trusted on the economy; no room for maneuver on economic policy; Scotland; Cameron's positive image). He would've presented a much more centrist & competent image than Ed, though I doubt this would've counted for much.

In some respects, David would've had an even tougher time than Ed. The trade unions & the Left were angry w/ Labour even w/ a soft left leader; imagine what it would've been like w/ David & his more centrist policies (in OTL there were threats of unions withdrawing funding, disaffiliation). The Greens would've probably had a huge boost. On Syria, David would've likely supported the gov't., possibly causing resignations from the Shadow Cabinet & a coup. And crucially, on Scotland: would the pro-Independence forces have done better, possibly even winning Independence, w/ a Blairite leading the Labour Party? Look at the vitriol that Jim Murphy suffered. Though, on the other hand, the image of a more competent Labour Party may have led some Scottish voters to believe that there was a chance of a left-wing gov't. getting back in power in the U.K.

The Labour Party would've been divided under David Miliband's leadership & it's possible he wouldn't have been able to make it to the general election, replaced in a coup orchestrated by the soft left & trade unions: Yvette Cooper, Ed Balls, or even his brother. It's clear from his leadership campaign that David was very arrogant & detached from the party.

On the other hand, I think Ed Miliband's leadership created a terrible atmosphere of complacency & insularity w/in the Labour Party which has led to the current disaster of Corbyn's leadership. The arguments of the Left were appeased when they should've been confronted, & the party did next to nothing to understand why it lost in 2010 & to appeal to voters in the center.

[MAINEiac4434]

Roughly the same, maybe a little better because he's closer to the center than Ed.

[Phony Moderate]

Roughly the same, maybe a little better because he's closer to the center than Ed.

I really don't think this matters too much. Thatcher was further to the right than both Heath and Major, Wilson was seen as being more left-wing than Gaitskell and Callaghan. The Lib Dems' most successful (in terms of seats) leader since WWII was also its most left-wing probably (Kennedy) and May looks set to vastly outperform David Cameron.

[mvd10]

We would be talking about Ed as a mythical and extremely charismatic figure who would have won the 2015 election in a landslide. "If we only had elected Ed!''

[Phony Moderate]

We would be talking about Ed as a mythical and extremely charismatic figure who would have won the 2015 election in a landslide. "If we only had elected Ed!''

It's pretty much entirely forgotten now, but in the closing days of the 2010 Labour leadership campaign Ed was seen as a more personable and charismatic figure than his brother and this was cited as a reason he was closing the gap between them in the polls.