Mandelson: Ed Miliband’s business strategy was “useless”

Lord Mandelson has lambasted Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour party, summarising his offering as “we’re for the poor, we hate the rich” and describing his business reasoning as “completely useless”.

“The awful, shocking thing about this election is Labour could have won it,” the Labour peer told the BBC. “Literally, we were sent out and told to say things and to make an argument – if you can call it an argument – which basically said, we’re for the poor, we hate the rich, ignoring completely the vast swathe of the population who exist in between.”

Lord Mandelson, who played a key role in orchestrating the New Labour operation under Tony Blair, paid tribute to Mr Miliband on a personal level, insisting he had “delivered a passionate and professional performance”. But he was less praiseworthy of his strategy for the party, after Labour was decimated at last Thursday’s election.

“The reason we lost it and lost it so badly is in 2010 we discarded New Labour, rather than revitalising it and re-energising it and making it relevant for the new times, the new policy challenges that we faced. That was a terrible mistake.”

He also laid into the Labour leader’s conference speech on “predator vs producer” businesses.  “I thought it was a completely useless label that led nowhere in any serious debate.”