Energy Secretary Ed Miliband Encourages the Labour Party to Focus Forward After Keir Starmer Apologises to Streeting for Aggressive Media Leaks

Senior Labour official Ed Miliband has demanded the party to leave behind party conflicts after PM Sir Keir Starmer directly said sorry to health minister Wes Streeting over hostile briefings linked to the Prime Minister's office.

Key Events

• Ed Miliband states the Prime Minister will sack the Downing Street source behind for targeting Streeting if identified
• Miliband rejects future leadership aspirations, saying his past time as leader was the "strongest inoculation" against seeking the role again
• UK economic growth increased by just 0.1% in the July-September period, affected by the Jaguar Land Rover security breach

Context

The internal controversy began after reports emerged about critical background comments from the Prime Minister's allies targeting the Health Secretary. Although early efforts to minimize the incident, the talk between the PM and Streeting apparently took a different direction.

The Prime Minister apologised to Streeting, the media have been told. The conversation was brief, and they did not address the chief of staff, whom the PM is now under pressure to remove.

Miliband's Statement

In his morning broadcast interviews, Ed Miliband stressed the need for the party to focus on country-wide matters rather than party disputes.

Look, I think the backgrounding has been bad, no question.

But my call to the party now is quite simple, which is we need to concentrate on the public, not ourselves.

We were given a major mandate last summer, a major chance to change our country. And we have a serious duty.

Growth News

In other news, official data indicated the British economic performance increased by just 0.1 percent in the July-September period, with the manufacturing industry particularly hit by the recently reported JLR security incident.

The Day's Agenda

• 9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures
• Morning: The Health Secretary visits the Liverpool area
• Morning: Rachel Reeves speaks to the journalists
• 11.30am: Downing Street holds its daily lobby briefing
• Today: The Prime Minister promotes government plans for the Britain's pioneering nuclear power plant at Wylfa on the island of Anglesey