Why Labour leader Ed Miliband won’t appear with Bob Crow

Ed Miliband declines to attend the Durham Miners’ Gala, where he would share a platform with Bob Crow, the firebrand union baron.

Ed Miliband is the Leader of the Labour Party 

Tim Walker.

7:30AM GMT 09 Mar 2013

Labour’s fourth-place finish at the Eastleigh by-election, with less than 10 per cent of the vote, cast doubt on Ed Miliband’s claims that he is leading the “one nation” party. The son of a Marxist historian is, however, keen to avoid further alarming moderate voters.

Mandrake can disclose that Miliband has declined to attend this year’s Durham Miners’ Gala, where he would have had to share a platform with Bob Crow, the firebrand union baron.

“He has a long-standing private engagement,” Miliband’s spokesman tells me. He insists that Crow’s appearance at the annual socialist jamboree is not the reason for Miliband’s no-show.

Last July, Miliband, who relies on donations from trade unions to bankroll the party, became the first Labour leader to address the gala since Neil Kinnock in 1989. Miliband’s predecessors feared that they would be characterised as hardline Left-wingers.

In 2011, Miliband pulled out of the event, reportedly because of Crow’s presence

At last summer’s gala, Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy chairman and election campaign coordinator, suggested that Crow’s militant RMT union might re-join the party.
“Crowbar”, as he is known, was a member of the Communist Party of Britain for around 14 years, later joining Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party. He is reported to believe that Britain should become a republic, with Tony Benn as its elected president.
He once summed up his political philosophy in Che Guevara’s slogan: “Hasta la victoria siempre,” “Forever onwards until the victory”.
Tony Blair made a point of avoiding the gala, despite representing a Durham mining constituency.
“The first year Mr Blair declined to attend, he was instead preparing to go and visit Rupert Murdoch in Australia,” said Michael Crick, Channel 4’s chief political correspondent. “The following year, he and his family used the gala weekend to visit the grand prix at Silverstone as guests of Bernie Ecclestone. The symbolism is wonderful.”
Other trade unionists due to attend the gala, which is organised by the Durham Miners’ Association, include Len McCluskey, of Unite, and Frances O’Grady, the general-secretary of the TUC.
What’s so funny?
Andrew Mitchell, who was forced to resign as chief whip over the “Plebgate” row, spoke at the Nyumbani charity’s gala dinner at the House of Commons, which was attended by Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, and Adam Afriyie, the backbench Tory MP.
Afriyie was linked earlier this year to an alleged plot to challenge David Cameron as Conservative leader.
“How lucky we are to be in the presence of not one, but two, Tory leadership contenders — Jeremy … and Adam,” Mitchell said.
For some unknown reason, his remark was met with laughter from fellow diners. Later, Mitchell told Mandrake: “I must go apologise to Adam.