Chris Moncrieff: Labour tears itself apart over Miliband

You would have expected his own colleagues at least to have remained loyal to the extent that they would not shout their reservations from the rooftops r.

But no. There have been no inhibitions. Even shadow cabinet colleagues have blasted him publicly. Others are said to be plotting ways of toppling him from office. Even Joe Haines, who was Harold Wilson’s press secretary at 10 Downing Street, has emerged from retirement to say that Miliband must go, preferably voluntarily, but forcibly if necessary.

With the Scottish Nationalists threatening to capture many of Labour’s vital seats in Scotland and Ukip damaging Labour as well as the Conservatives, Miliband is seen among his own ranks as a loser, a man who will let the Tories in again at the next general election.

The man they want to replace him is the affable Alan Johnson, the former Home Secretary and Shadow Chancellor. He is probably the only senior Labour Party figure who could transform this dire situation in time for next May’s election.

But Johnson, the West Hull and Hessle MP, has made clear that he is a fervent Miliband supporter and has no appetite for the job. But of course he could be persuaded otherwise.

If Johnson did take over, that would be bad news for the Conservatives who are now relishing the backbiting and back-stabbing among the Opposition.

All the Tories have to do at the moment is sit tight and silent, and let Labour get on with the job of self-damage.

And what must the former Foreign Secretary David Miliband think about the way his brother – who beat him for the job – is now making such a shambles of it?

How can a man who has been described by one of his own shadow cabinet members as “a total failure” survive such an onslaught?

We shall see.

CHANCELLOR George Osborne claims to have won a victory over the hard-headed Brussels Eurocrats by halving the sum of £1.7bn which they demanded from Britain. But Labour have insisted that Osborne’s boast is all smoke and mirrors and that he has saved nothing.

Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, claims that the United Kingdom will not benefit one penny from Osborne’s efforts.

It is, I must say, difficult to work out which of the two is right.

The finances of the European Union are in such a shambles – its own auditors have refused to sign off the returns for years now – that nothing is as simple as it might look.

Osborne says he has halved the amount demanded, that the original deadline of December 1 has been abandoned, and that Britain will also benefit from other concessions.

I must admit that to have achieved all that in the space of a single day in the face of such obdurate and, in many cases, hostile people seemed almost too good to be true.

Too often in the past, ministers from both Labour and Conservative-led Governments have emerged from talks in Brussels crowing about their triumphs, only for us to discover later, on closer examination, that such was not the case.

No doubt we will find out sooner or later whether Osborne’s claims are justified. Therefore I shall reserve my judgement.

MICHAEL Portillo might not agree, but I think that one of the best things to have happened to him was his shock defeat at Enfield, Southgate, at the 1997 General Election.

Admittedly, he came back to Westminster later as Conservative Member for Kensington and Chelsea, but, I have to admit that he did not look comfortable any more in Parliament.

Any chance of winning the Conservative Party leadership – for which, at one time, he had been widely tipped – had passed him by, and no doubt the prospect of a long period in opposition he did not find appealing.

Now he has become a television performer of the highest quality, not just with his political jousting alongside Labour’s Diane Abbott, but with his fascinating and compelling programmes about railway journeys.

One of his latest, travelling across Russia by rail with his Bradshaw, was one of the most intriguing programmes I have ever watched. Portillo has found his metier!

He has a job which many an envious schoolboy (and octogenarian, too, I might add) would give their right arms for.

• Chris Moncrieff is a former political editor of the Press Assiociation.