Ed Miliband seeks new friends at Big Business love-in

As senior Labour figures rally around their embattled leader – Chuka Umunna and Caroline Flint have both been busy singing his praises this weekend – Ed Miliband himself was set to address the Confederation of British Industry today at what looks more like a Labour love-in than a Big Business conference.

Old lefties like 'Red Ed' – when was he last called that? - used to be viscerally opposed to the EU as a rich man’s club.

But Miliband will tell the CBI: “I make you this promise: if I am prime minister I will never risk your businesses, British jobs, or British prosperity by playing political games with our membership of the European Union.”

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It’s a risk because Miliband is likely to write off more core votes in places like Rotherham and Rochdale where working-class Labour supporters are tempted to switch to Ukip because of what they see as unbridled EU immigration costing them their jobs.

But on the very day that Tory backbenchers are threatening a Commons rebellion over the European arrest warrant, Miliband has the chance to seize the pro-European agenda which David Cameron has been forced to abandon in his desperate attempt to deal with the Ukip threat.

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So, Miliband’s pitch is daring - but it could bolster his position, both outside Westminster and with the Blairite wing of the party from where most of the muttering/moaning/plotting against him has emanated (largely because they never voted for him the first place, backing brother David instead.)

Intriguingly, the CBI’s conference agenda today could come from the Labour Party or even a TUC conference. It is stuffed with measures to improve the living standards of the workers (Miliband’s ‘big issue’), including more child care and lower taxes for the low paid. At this rate, the CBI might even end up agreeing to the living wage!

Meanwhile, Team Miliband has been working overtime to put to bed the supposed coup – or threats of a coup – against the Labour leader caused by the alarm at his plummeting personal rating.

Lucy Powell, who was promoted last week from Miliband’s chief of staff to the election strategy team, has tweeted that Ed must be supported because he stands for “economic recovery for the many, not the few”.

The hashtag #webackEd is trending on Twitter – though not without some poisonous comments appearing in between the messages of support. One person wrote: "WebackedEd, and so did our parents, but his Party's Council in Rotherham did nothing to stop what happened to us.”

Even so, the Tory-supporting press seems to believe that the threat to Miliband has passed. The Sun reports that the “plotters” against Miliband have “lost the plot” and decided to put their moves to oust him on hold until after the general election when (should Labour lose it) three Shadow Cabinet rivals – Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna and Andy Burnham – can fight it out between them.

The Daily Telegraph’s Stephen Bush, in his morning briefing, agrees: “The reality is that the danger to Mr Miliband - as much as it ever existed - has passed.”