Labour MPs revolt against Ed Miliband

UK: Embattled Ed Miliband was told by Labour MPs last night to stop copying David Cameron and start showing some leadership of his own.The Labour leader sparked a furious backlash after the party abandoned opposition to the Coalition’s public-sector pay freeze and refused to reverse cuts.

The U-turn was unveiled by Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, who insisted the party had to set a ‘credible’ alternative to the Coalition and be ‘honest with the British people’.

But Labour MPs accused the two Eds of caving into the Tory agenda.

Labour veteran Austin Mitchell attacked ‘barmy’ Mr Balls’s cuts somersaults and also lambasted ‘weak’ Mr Miliband.

He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is a desperate attempt to get respectability but it’s barmy. Miliband is acting out of weakness.

We are not the Government and we will get nowhere by going around wearing a hair shirt like this.’ Fellow Labour MP John Mann accused the party leadership of ‘signing up to Plan A on the economy – the Tory agenda’.

And Blyth Valley MP Ronnie Campbell said: ‘The activists are livid. We are dancing to the Tory tune. We’ve been opposing their cuts, now we’re saying we agree with them. We don’t know whether we’re coming or going.’

Privately, some senior Labour MPs claim the policy volte-face has been forced on Mr Miliband by resurgent ‘Blairite’ MPs who have seized on the leader’s faltering poll ratings.

But last night, Mr Miliband shrugged off the criticism from his own side and said he was determined to lead the party into the next Election.

A senior aide said: ‘Ed is very focused. He knew this would be tough and he has chosen a hard course.

‘Cameron trailed Gordon Brown by a huge margin at one point – that is what happens in opposition.’

Mr Balls’s policy shift comes after mounting fears within the party high command that despite the stalling economic growth and rising jobless figures, Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne are more trusted by voters on the economy than Labour.