The edition of New Statesman tomorrow will endorse Ed Miliband as Labour leader.

Update: The leader has been published on the New Statesman website – but here are a few highlights:

—
Why Ed Miliband should be the next Labour leader

Many of our readers despair of Labour and will never forgive the authoritarian tendencies of Tony Blair, or how he allowed the party to be drawn into a fatal and militaristic alliance with the neoconservatives of the Bush administration. Nor will they forgive the neoliberal market dogmatism that resulted in the British economy becoming so unbalanced and so over-reliant on reckless financiers. We empathise with them.

…

Indeed, there are many aspects of the coalition government’s programme of which we approve, notably its commitment to constitutional reform and enhanced civil liberties, and the willingness of the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, to make poverty and dispossession a defining issue of our political discourse. Yet we still believe that Labour is the party that offers the best hope of achieving the progressive transformation of British society that we seek, perhaps one day in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

…

Now, slowly, we are witnessing the first signs of renewal. There has been a preparedness to admit mistakes and ask painful questions about why so many of its natural supporters ended up feeling so betrayed by or isolated from Labour. So far, of all the candidates, it is Ed Miliband who has been most prepared to challenge New Labour orthodoxies, to use a different kind of language. He advocates a Labour agenda that is confident, forceful and empowering, committed to greater freedom, social justice and, above all else, reducing inequality.

The primary task of the next Labour leader has to be to develop a political economy that addresses the fundamental inequalities and inequities that have blighted British society for so long – and which will only worsen as the Con-Lib coalition’s doctrinaire spending cuts begin to bite. To talk of tackling social mobility, as coalition ministers do, without addressing the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, is disingenuous. The fight for a more equal society has to become a priority again and Ed Miliband understands this (see his column on page 21).

…

Voting begins on 1 September and we urge all undecided MPs and MEPs, and Labour Party and trade union members, to vote for Ed Miliband. He is the “change candidate” who has the greatest potential to connect with a wider electorate and especially with those politically engaged young people, internationalist in outlook, who have lost faith in conventional Westminster politics but yearn for a more democratic, fairer and freer Britain. Labour needs a bold, charismatic, compassionate and visionary leader to renew the party and begin the journey back to government. Ed Miliband has shown us he could be that leader.

————

Update: The magazine also reports that Jon Cruddas has officially come out to support David Miliband:

“I’m endorsing David,” Cruddas says now, “because of a couple of contributions he has made – one was the column on Englishness he wrote in your magazine [in our 5 July issue]. Another was his Keir Hardie Memorial Lecture [on 9 July]. What was interesting to me about this was when he started talking about belonging and neighbourliness and community, more communitarian politics, which is where I think Labour has to go.

He’s the only one [of the leadership contenders] that has got into some of that. He’s tackling some of more profound questions that need to be addressed head-on. What is the nature of the reckoning? We should not just be running from the record but having a nuanced approach to some of the things that went wrong, as well as defending the things that went right.”

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   New Statesman endorses Ed Miliband – we have the full leader http://bit.ly/bXI03j

2. John West

   RT @libcon: New Statesman endorses Ed Miliband – we have the full leader http://bit.ly/bXI03j

3. Manu Ekanayake

   RT @libcon: New Statesman endorses Ed Miliband – we have the full leader http://bit.ly/bXI03j

4. Dave Howard

   The New Statesman will tomorrow endorse Ed Miliband as Labour leader: http://bit.ly/bIkq56

5. Naadir Jeewa

   Reading: New Statesman endorses Ed Miliband: The edition of New Statesman tomorrow will endorse Ed Miliband as Lab… http://bit.ly/cm7DgW

6. Lee Durbin

   RT @libcon: New Statesman endorses Ed Miliband http://bit.ly/bXI03j <- between this & Cruddas's move, seems like genuine debate might occur