Johnson fallout: Change of scene means a missed opportunity

ONE wonders whether Ed Miliband was glad to escape a particularly feverish Westminster when he came to Scotland yesterday. In one sense he might have been grateful for a break from the fall-out of Alan Johnson's unexpected resignation.

• Ed Miliband, left, and Iain Gray in Dalkeith yesterday at the Mark Wright Centre for ex-service men and women

In another sense, he must have been desperate to be back in London to put the boot into the Conservatives over Andy Coulson's departure.

As the pendulum that responds to political misfortune swung dramatically from one party to the other, Miliband was presumably relieved that Labour's resignation had been trumped by a Tory resignation that casts doubt over the Prime Minister's judgement.

So, when Miliband went to Livingston and spoke to reporters as they gathered at the headquarters of Atos Origin, an IT company based in the West Lothian town, he was well prepared for their line of questioning.

"What do you want to ask me about?" the Labour leader said. "The day's events," was the reply of one journalist.

"You mean this visit?" said Miliband with his tongue firmly in his check as he glanced around the smart Atos offices where he had been hobnobbing with staff as he spread the Labour message with his Scottish lieutenant, Iain Gray.

"I'm not going to be employing Andy Coulson," said Miliband to laughter when he was asked about David Cameron's ex-director of communications.

Miliband claimed that Cameron made the "wrong judgement" by keeping Coulson in place when there were a "cloud of allegations" hanging over him from his time as editor at the News of the World.

"I think he should have gone earlier," Miliband said. "Beyond that, it is a matter for the Prime Minister and indeed anything else that arises during this investigation," the Labour leader added, perhaps secretly hoping that more juicy revelations about dubious journalistic practices might come out in the wash.

However, the last 24 hours had been far from plain sailing for Miliband, who was also pressed on the extraordinary resignation that has rocked his own party.

Allegations that it was Alan Johnson's wife Laura's affair with a personal protection officer that was behind the ex-shadow chancellor's resignation had the more prurient political observers salivating.There was also the small matter of Johnson's replacement Ed Balls, whose promotion to a job he covets raises questions about the top of the Labour Party.

Would Miliband be able to work with a Brownite politician, who had clashed with him during the Labour leadership contest over Labour economic policy?

Balls had been a vocal critic of Miliband, arguing that the new Labour leader wanted to cut the deficit too quickly.

Again, Miliband was well prepared.

"We are absolutely as one on the question of the deficit, the fact we're committed to halving it in four years," Miliband claimed.

Being a political leader can never be easy. As his predecessor Tony Blair was grilled over the war in Iraq in London, the controversy caused by the conflict followed Miliband to Scotland. Earlier, he visited the Mark Wright Centre in Dalkeith for ex-soldiers. Even though Miliband has said the Iraq War was a mistake, he was told by veterans that they no longer trusted Labour. It must have been a relief to meet the less challenging Atos Origin employees, who, among other things, work out the Scottish football fixtures. Now it was time for the politicians to ask difficult questions of their own.

"When are Hibs next getting three away games in a row?" asked that well known habituee of Easter Road, Iain Gray.

Royal minder

POLICE bodyguards have been embroiled in scandal before, most notably Princess Diana's "minder", Barry Mannakee.

The pair were reported to have become close in 1985 - four years into Diana's marriage and several months before Prince Charles re-established contact with Camilla Parker Bowles.

The following year, father-of-two Mr Mannakee, below, was moved from his royal duties at Kensington Palace to the diplomatic corps.

Eight months later, in May 1987, aged 39, he died riding pillion on a motorcycle which collided with a Ford Fiesta in London.

Some members of Charles's circle were convinced the police sergeant's sudden change of role was because he was Diana's first extra-marital lover. Although talk of an affair is dismissed by her friends, there is no doubting Mr Mannakee and the Princess were close.

After his death, Diana would make yearly visits to the City of London crematorium where his ashes are scattered and would often talk about a treasured teddy bear he had given her.