Labour Leadership: Latest Betting Odds

1 Sep 2010

With voting in the Labour leadership contest getting under way today (Wednesday) leadership candidate Ed Balls has criticised the "soap opera" surrounding fellow contenders Ed and David Miliband.

In an article for the LabourList Mr Balls said "the now daily episodes of the Miliband soap opera suit those who want to keep this a two-horse race, but do not do justice to the issues at stake in this election."
He added that "getting lost in debates about New and Old Labour may generate lots of headlines, but will get us nowhere with the public.
We need to show why our ideas will help meet the challenges of the next decade rather than the last one, and will help us win back the voters we lost."

Instead, Mr Balls spent Tuesday outlining proposals for 100,000 new homes to be built at a cost of £6bn.

And he is not the only one wading into the leadership debate speaking in the Times Lord Mandelson has claimed that if the next leader tried to create a "pre-New Labour party"  they would lead the party into an "electoral cul-de-sac" , which many see as a criticism of Ed Milliband.

Mandelson was reacting after Ed Milliband suggested New Labour had feared increasing taxes for high earners, had displayed an aversion to Old Labour's anti-Americanism and had suffered from an unnecessary desire to protect the public from the views of Labour members.


Meanwhile, other leadership hopeful Andy Burnham has insisted he can win and that there is not a "two-horse race" between the Milibands. Diane Abbott is also running for the leadership contestant.

David Milliband is currently favourite to win the contest with odds of 1/3 with Bet365 and Paddypower and 4/11 with Skybet. Ed Milliband has odds 9/4 with Bet365 to win, 2/1 with Skybet and Boylesport. Andy Burnham has odds of 66/1 with Bet365, Ladbrokes and Victor Chandler to win. Ed Balls has odds of 80/1 with Bet365, 40/1 with Skybet and 66/1 with totesport while Diane Abbott has odds of 150/1 with Bet365 and Victor Chandler and 125/1 with Paddypower.

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