Politicians in trouble traditionally say that they are resigning to spend more time with their families. Alan Johnson’s resignation last week over ‘personal issues’ was unusual in that it seemed for once to be genuine. That’s not to say that there weren’t political reasons also for his departure. Had the shadow chancellor been performing supremely well in his post, one suspects he might have persuaded himself that his country and his party needed him, and that he had a serious job to do whatever his wife was up to.
But either way, it looks like another lucky break for Ed Miliband, following his victory in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, and the resignation of David Cameron’s communications director, Andy Coulson, over the phone-hacking scandal. Johnson’s departure gets Miliband out of the hole he had dug for himself by failing to appoint the right man for the treasury job in the first place. That man was, of course, Gordon Brown’s protégé, Ed Balls, the best economic thinker in the shadow cabinet by far. Miliband minor was left looking faintly ridiculous as Alan Johnson stumbled from gaffe to gaffe, celebrating his own ignorance of economics and stumbling over the rate of employers national insurance. It was obvious that Miliband had made the wrong call.
Sending Balls off to the home office was not only a waste of his talents, it showed the new Labour leader to be weak. Surely, the only reason for sidelining Balls was to prevent him dominating the cabinet on the economy. Now Miliband has had to accept Ed Balls as his shadow chancellor anyway, and the question everyone’s asking is: has Miliband minor got the balls to handle him? He has a very dangerous rival now, at his side - arguably a more dangerous rival than Gordon Brown was to Tony Blair. There may have been no Granita pact, but Balls is now immovable and owes his leader nothing. If Ed Miliband fails to raise his game as leader, and so far he has been pretty unimpressive, then the ‘other Ed’ will be watching for the main chance.
