Diane Abbott on warpath over Ed's immigration mea culpa

But can Miliband's measured tones win over those who think he's too soft on immigration?

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 12: Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband arrives to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry on June 12, 2012 in London, England. This phase of the inquiry into the culture, pra
(Image credit: 2012 Getty Images)

ED MILIBAND is tiptoeing through a minefield today by using a Party Political Broadcast to admit that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown got it wrong over Labour's 'open door' policy towards EU migrants coming into Britain.

Already, Diane Abbot, the black Labour MP and party spokesman on public health, has exploded before he has started, with a warning against lurching to the right on immigration in the wake of the Eastleigh by-election. Abbott says in the New Statesman: "The worst lesson that any mainstream political party could learn, in the light of UKIP's surge, is the necessity to move right on immigration."

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is the pseudonym for a London-based political consultant who writes exclusively for The Week.co.uk.