Labour Party Leadership supporting nominations closed at 1pm today: CLPs David Miliband – 165 Ed Miliband – 148 Andy Burnham – 44 Diane Abbott – 20 Ed Balls – 17 Trade Unions (in approx size order) Unite – Ed Miliband Unison - Ed Miliband GMB - Ed Miliband USDAW - David Miliband CWU - Ed Balls Community - David Miliband UCATT - Ed Miliband TSSA - Diane Abbott ASLEF - Diane Abbott NUM â...

Springtime for Ed Miliband, curtains for Balls. Or at least it should be, following the news that Unite will back Miliband for the leadership. It is rumoured that Balls will pull out of the race and support David Miliband in an attempt to secure the shadow chancellor’s post. But only Brown does seemingly blind defiance better than Balls. This morning, Balls has assaulted the airwaves with th...

The news that Unison has decided to back Ed Miliband must make it very likely he can beat his brother as many insiders had assumed Unison would back Burnham. Current state of play on unions and affiliates is as follows: Unions - ranked by size of affiliation: Unite - not nominated yet Unison - Ed Miliband GMB - Ed Miliband USDAW - David Miliband CWU - Ed Balls Community - David Miliband UCATT - Ed...

The prospect of Ed Balls and David Miliband working together at the top of the Labour Party has moved a step closer.

Ed Miliband has just taken the biggest risk of his leadership in appointing Ed Balls as his shadow Chancellor. Balls’ is not a man who take orders and his view on the deficit is noticeably different from Ed Miliband’s. He is also the person most closely associated with Gordon Brown’s economic record. George Osborne will relish this fight. During the vacuum between Ed Miliband win...

Cross-posted from HarpyMarx David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Jon Cruddas deciding not to stand now ( though described as the ‘left’ candidate…really? His voting pattern is thoroughly NL…no rebellious streak there nor an independent thinker!), Ed Balls…..Andy Burnham David Miliband voted for the Iraq war, Balls and Miliband junior were elec...

Ed Miliband must take tough decisions to detoxify the Labour brand. He should unleash Ed Balls and his brother David on the Coalition, says John McTernan.

James Purnell is on manoeuvres.  That certainly seems to be the consensus, and it's one that I agree with.  The same's also been said of Ed Balls and David Miliband.  But I'm struck by just how differently Purnell is going about things from his potential rivals.  His approach could pay dividends. You see, the manoeuvres of Ed Balls and David Miliband have largely consisted of showy efforts of supp...

Ed Miliband has secured a clean sweep of the major unions. That poses Miliband a problem in the future – centrist opponents can characterise him as ‘the union candidate’ with all its negative connotations. In the meantime, Miliband’s chances of becoming the next Labour leader have been greatly enhanced.   Ed Balls, however, is effectively finished. Balls will recognise...

So fraternal rivalry it is, then, as Ed Miliband prepares to announce his leadership bid at a Fabian Society conference today. And, reading his interview with the Guardian, it's clear that Ed Balls is soon going to follow suit. Two Eds, two leadership bids, and much shared rhetoric about "listening" to voters. But the similarities don't end there. The passage where Ed Balls arg...