Sharpen up your message, Ed told: Front-bench ally says Labour leader must use more direct language to win over voters

  • Jon Trickett said his leader needs to communicate in ‘primary colours’
  • Party's deputy chairman is latest figure asking leader to speak more clearly
  • Growing number of MPs concerned his abstractions are a turn off

By Tim Shipman

Published: 18:50 EST, 31 March 2014 | Updated: 05:44 EST, 1 April 2014

Communication: The Labour leader has been told he needs to use more 'direct language' to win over voters

Communication: The Labour leader has been told he needs to use more 'direct language' to win over voters

Ed Miliband needs to use more ‘direct language’ to win over voters, one of his closest frontbench allies has said.

Labour’s deputy chairman Jon Trickett said his leader needs to communicate in ‘primary colours’ and reflect the way voters talk if the party is to win the general election.

He is the latest in a long line of Labour figures to call for Mr Miliband to speak more clearly.

A growing number of Labour MPs are concerned that his sometimes ponderous professorial prognostications about political abstractions are proving a turn-off for the public - concerns that have grown as Labour’s poll lead has shrunk.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Mr Trickett said the party needed to ‘communicate in the most direct language we possibly can and in primary colours’.

He added: ‘Strong, plain language, in primary colours, is part of a spectrum of communication techniques which any modern party [has to] use.’

‘Labour needs to speak with all the accents and dialects and different rhythms of speech which the English and the British speak with.’

Mr Trickett, a shadow minister without portfolio - a post designed to leave him free to act as an attack dog -- praised Mr Miliband for promoting frontbenchers with regional accents.

‘That is what Ed is assembling together, whether it is Michael Dugher or Gloria [De Piero] or Douglas [Alexander]. Each speaks in a different accent in a different way.’

But he made clear there is also an onus on Mr Miliband to make himself more clearly understood.

Mr Trickett said: ‘It is up to his whole team, including me, that we get out more often and make the case for big change, radical transformation and a reconnection with those people who left Labour.. prior to 2010.’

 

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He spoke out after former Cabinet minister Hazel Blears said Mr Miliband had to start ‘talking in normal human language’.

Backbencher Simon Danczuk has twice gone public to rail against Mr Miliband’s speaking style and his keenness in speeches on political theory and non-specfic slogans.

Advice: Labour's deputy chairman Jon Trickett said his leader needs to communicate in 'primary colours'

Advice: Labour's deputy chairman Jon Trickett said his leader needs to communicate in 'primary colours'

‘Our communication has to be much stronger,’ Mr Danczuk argued. ‘I think we have to move beyond abstract concepts like “one nation”.’

Tory MP Henry Smith said: ‘When your own appointed “attack dog” starts attacking the leadership, you know the Labour party are is complete disarray.

‘Ed Miliband can’t communicate to the hardworking people of Britain because he has no long term plan for the country. He only offers more spending, more borrowing and more taxes, exactly what got us into a mess in the first place.’

Ed Balls used a speech last night to suggest that the UK should stay in the European Union

Ed Balls used a speech last night to suggest that the UK should stay in the European Union

Mr Trickett appeared to claim that his comments had been taken out of context. Last night he tweeted: ‘Evidently you haven’t bothered to read the details. Typical Tory never let the facts get in the way of an attack line.’

Meanwhile Ed Balls used a speech last night to argue that Britain must stay in the European Union.

In a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference, the Shadow Chancellor sought to rebuild links with business leaders who are sceptical of Labour’s economic credentials.

Wooing businessmen who want to stay in the EU, he said: ‘We are clear that there is no future for Britain in walking away from our biggest market.

‘We believe Britain is better placed to shape Europe’s future, and back British business, jobs and our national interest, if we are fully engaged rather than having one foot out of the door.’

Mr Balls, who is widely credited with keeping Britain out of the euro when he was Gordon Brown’s adviser, sought to make a virtue of Ed Miliband’s refusal to back an in-out referendum.

He said: ‘We would hold an in-out referendum if there was a further transfer of powers - a prospect we believe is possible, but unlikely in the next Parliament. Not an arbitrary timetable for a referendum, which puts Tory party politics before the national economic interest, and is creating huge uncertainty for business.

‘To walk away from our EU membership would be reckless, foolish and deeply damaging. It would be anti-investment, anti-jobs and anti-business.’

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hes a clown.

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Ed is a natural born loser,and weird!

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He's right, the first words should be "I resign" job done.

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no matter what the guru's come up with,this numpty is a born loser

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Odd that the conservative party talk of the financial mess left to them, what was it that Cameron said before the world crash, 'we will continue building on the success when we get into power' was he saying more of the same? After the world crash he distanced himself from it. A moment looking up UK recessions since 1945 - who was in power during most of them?

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The extra problem we had in the UK after the Banks went belly up was that we were creating more and more government and personal debt. PFI contracts were not on the 'books' and are causing less money to be spent on front line services in NHS and education establishments. Have a look at the dire situation Peterborough Hospital is in.

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I would settle for just plain truthful words to be honest - leave the primary colours on the walls thank you very much.

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Labour voted for the wrong brother and it will cost them the next election! You always need a good opposition and Ed is pathetic. vote UKIP

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Yes he should tell it like it is - '' I will spend more of your money and increase our debts again! '

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The three 'leaders' are way below par.

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Muppet alert, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.

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