Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband said tonight he had recruited 1,300 potential campaign volunteers in 24 hours in an Obama-style two-way text message drive. His campaign team claimed the mobile marketing exercise was a first for British politics.
Miliband's team sent thousands of text messages to Labour party members through data supplied to all candidates by the party and instead of just sending a message, asked for a response. About half of the recipients replied, of whom 45% said they were supporting the former energy secretary.
Supporters were then asked if they would like to help the campaign, which resulted in 1,300 potential new volunteers. Those who said they were not supporters were asked why they were backing another candidate – 1,500 replied and their responses will be examined by the Miliband team. A team spokesman said: "We have said all along we might be outspent throughout this campaign, but we wouldn't be out-organised."
Mobile and internet campaigning in politics is not new – Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" movement which propelled him to the White House involved extensive use of the internet and text alerts. More than 2.9m text messages were sent to announce that Senator Joe Biden was Obama's vice presidential choice in what was said to be the largest mobile marketing push by text message. The Miliband campaign is more modest – his team say 20-25,000 texts have been sent to party members.
As the contest became more tense, rival contender Andy Burnham denied yesterday that his criticism of the previous administration's "London-centric" elitism was a veiled attack on Ed Miliband and his elder brother and fellow contender David. Burnham used an interview with the Sunday Telegraph to present himself as the "anti-establishment" candidate, describing his own policies as "rooted in my experience of life".
He fuelled speculation that his comments were directed at the Miliband brothers - the sons of a leading socialist thinker who grew up in north London and went straight into politics after university - by telling the paper: "I want to help the ordinary kids without connections. The ordinary person does not have well-connected parents." He appeared to be directing a barb at another leadership contender, Ed Balls, by criticising the "self-indulgent factionalism" with which the Blair and Brown camps fought one another.
The shadow health secretary said he was not making personal attacks on his leadership rivals. "I making no personal comments about anybody," Burnham said Sky News' Sunday Live. "My critique is of a style of politics and it goes to the heart of why I'm putting myself forward to lead the Labour Party."
In a letter to the Guardian today, 10 MPs, former MPs and candidates in south and east England say that Balls, the former education secretary, is the best candidate for leader because he understands what is needed to regain voters' trust.
The winning candidate will be announced at the Labour party conference on 25 September after a poll of Labour MPs, MEPs, party members, trade unions and affiliated bodies.