General Election 2015: Miliband branded ‘shameful’ as negative campaigning stoops to new low over migrant crisis
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Version 0 of 1. Ed Miliband has been branded as “shameful” by Downing Street over blaming David Cameron partly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean. The Labour leader will make a rare intervention on foreign affairs today with a stinging attack on the Prime Minister’s role in creating instability in Libya, which has led to thousands of north Africans drowning in the Mediterranean as they try to flee the crisis. A senior Conservative source described Mr Miliband’s attack as “deeply provocative” and demanded he apologise for “trying to score political points from the terrible events we have witnessed in the Mediterranean." David Cameron in Libya in 2011 Cabinet minister Liz Truss also hit out at Mr Miliband, saying it was “outrageous and disgraceful,” to bring the migrant crisis into the election campaign. "Actually accusing the Prime Minister of causing these deaths - whether directly or indirectly - I think is wrong,” she said. But Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander accused the Tories of trying to manufacture the row. Mr Miliband, who will speak at the Chatham House think tank, says the current migrant crisis in the Mediterranean could have been avoided if Mr Cameron had “stood by the people of Libya in practice” rather than “only in principle”. He will compare Labour’s “genuine and hard-headed multilateralism” with Mr Cameron’s “pessimistic isolationism” on the world stage. Miliband rarely makes speeches on foreign policy He will say: “In Libya Labour supported military action to avoid the slaughter Gaddafi threatened in Benghazi. But since the action, the failure of post-conflict planning has become obvious. David Cameron was wrong to assume that Libya’s political culture and institutions could be left to evolve and transform on their own. “What we have seen in Libya is that when tensions over power and resource began to emerge, they simply reinforced deep-seated ideological and ethnic fault lines in the country, meaning the hopes of the revolutionary uprisings quickly began to unravel. Prime Minister David Cameron takes a walk through Martyrs Square in the capital of Libya "The tragedy is that this could have been anticipated. It should have been avoided. And Britain could have played its part in ensuring the international community stood by the people of Libya in practice rather than standing behind the unfounded hopes of potential progress only in principle.” Defending his leader’s attack, Mr Alexander said Mr Cameron had "abjectly failed" to engage in effective post-conflict planning. "I do think David Cameron waded in and then walked away. It is a failure of post-conflict planning for which the international community bears responsibility. That's not a matter of dispute. It's simply a matter of fact." The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible. Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed: All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report) |