Damian McBride says he doesn’t think his revelations will have any electoral impact. I think that he’s right
But it could have done just if published in April 2015
The biggest political impact of the McBride book and now TV interviews is that they will reduce media coverage of the current Labour conference. Some of the messages that EdM and his team were hoping to get across will be over-shadowed.
That might depress the short-term polling impact that Labour could have expected from its conference but really that will be as far as it goes.
One of the interesting revelations was that he’d turned down an offer of “twice as much” for postponing publication until just before the May 2015 general election. He says he did so because he felt it would damage Labour.
There’s probably something in that. The narrative of the election campaign would have been de-railed for a couple of days with the Two Eds being under consistent pressure about their roles during that time.
The Paxman interview is worth watching if only for the accomplished way that McBride dealth with it.
My main verdict is that Labour is the poorer for not having someone with McBride’s skills currently on board working behind the scenes. I like this Tweet from Housing minister, Nick Boles.
Chris Huhne just lost his "World's Thickest Skin" title #Newsnight
— Nick Boles (@GeneralBoles) September 23, 2013
Mike Smithson
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