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Sibling rivalry

September 29th 2010

Deborah Stuttard

Deborah (Debs) Stuttard is a senior account manager at Marketecture. She comes from an in-house background as a marketing manager, so is ideally placed to understand and address the day-to-day client frustratons and challenges. A former politics graduate she is often found ranting on all things political. Sorry about that!

So it’s Ed, not David, who has secured the coveted Labour hot seat.

‘Red Ed’ beat the odds, narrowly defeating his better looking, more charismatic brother with the backing of the Unions. Creating speculation from political pundits here in Manchester (and beyond) over whether New Labour is now a dead duck.

Ed must be fizzing. His moment of glory has well and truly been overshadowed with mass speculation on what David will do next (Despite the furore, I suspect a ‘What Kate did Next’ spin-off, might be a step to far).

His victory, of course, is not only tainted by the brotherly tug of war, but faces added complication as his party didn’t actually vote for him. The Tories are rubbing their hands in glee (as no doubt, is Nick).

It’s not exactly a PR success for team Ed. And they need to regain the upper hand. Fast.

Firstly they need to consider the messaging. The ‘Red Ed’ tag has to go. Mud sticks and he simply can’t let his opponents define him. I can’t be the only one who shudders at the thought of the UK being held to ransom by the Unions. I suspect he’ll position himself firmly in the political middle-ground over the next few days, shunning away from anything that could raise suspicion of him being a ‘commie’.

Secondly, they need to think about positioning. Quite frankly, David has to go. And if speculation is correct, he probably will announce his decision to quit front line politics later today. If he stays, everything Ed does will be given extra scrutiny. Everything David says will be analysed with a fine tooth comb. The media took great joy in the Blair/Brown divide; can you imagine how much further they could take it with brothers?

Thirdly, Ed has to better align himself with his buyers. The great British public. Promises to marry his partner Justine Thornton will help humanise him. Everyone loves a good wedding.

It’s not an insurmountable challenge. Ed just might be the one to help Labour recover from some (very) bad decisions under Blair and any further damage caused by the unelected Brown. We can all agree that Dave and Nick have had it easy so far. The cracks of the coalition are yet to show, but behind the scenes you can bet they’re there.

With some careful planning and canny PR we may have a fight on our hands at the next election. I can’t wait.