Standing ovation as Red Ed gives faithful glimpse of fire in his belly

UK Political Correspondent

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Ed Miliband has often been accused of being too cerebral and too geeky to be the next Prime Minister.

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So when he revealed a flash of the fire in his belly yesterday it took even the Labour faithful by surprise.

Delegates sat in their seats and looked slightly stunned as their leader asked: "Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, out-of-touch, U-turning, pledge-breaking, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, back-of-the-envelope, miserable shower than this Prime Minister and this Government?"

And then they decided they loved it. Just a little at first, beginning in the right hand side of the hall, they stood up, triggering a full scale standing ovation. Working entirely from memory this was a new, more confident Mr Miliband who was being presented to the audience. He was nonplussed by the reaction, simply telling them, like the late Frank Carson, "and there's more". A century and a half ago Benjamin Diserali used Manchester's Free Trade Hall, now a hotel, to launch One Nation Toryism. During his speech, Mr Miliband told the faithful, Britain's first Jewish Prime Minister had spoken for three hours and drunk two bottles of brandy. He would not repeat the trick, he assured them. But with flashes of surprising comic timing, he did deliver a deliberately crafted speech of old-fashioned political rhetoric.There was anger in his voice as he told the crowd that David Cameron should admit how much he would personally make from the abolition of the top rate of tax. He added: "Don't let him ever tell us again we are all in this together." Though he kept to his pledge, there would be no Disraeli-style marathon, it was not perfect. There were a few stumbles and hesitations and at one point he mistakenly said the NHS should be built on competition when he meant compassion. But in a conference hall stripped of red – purple is thought to look better on the television – it certainly offered a different view of this Labour leader. Aside from the rhetoric there were some hard truths as well. People would have to work longer, he said. And Labour would not reverse all the Tories cuts. Almost unnoticed by the crowd, he also told them the next Labour Government would have to make public service cuts. Things would be more difficult for those who use services and those who work in them, he said, before moving on to bash bankers. How that message goes down in the next two-and-a-half years could yet define Mr Miliband's future more than rhetoric.

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Standing ovation as Red Ed gives faithful glimpse of fire in his belly

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