Mandelson attacks mansion tax: well he would, wouldn’t he?

Lord Mandelson, one of the architects of New Labour, has warned Labour leader Ed Miliband that he won't win the election by "clobbering" the wealthy a “crude, short-term” mansion tax.

Speaking on BBC Newsnight, Mandelson supported instead a Lib-Dem plan to increase the council tax bands to raise the tax on homes worth more than £2 million. "It will be more effective and efficient in the long term,” he said.

It's not the first time Mandelson has complained about the mansion tax on Newsnight and he's not the first senior Labour figure to oppose it: a string of London mayoral candidates including Blairite Tessa Jowell and leftie Diane Abbott have also criticised what is seen as a "London tax" because of the high property values in the capital.

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However, a recent YouGov poll suggested they are out of step with public opinion: 72 per cent of all voters support the mansion tax and among Labour voters support is up to 85 per cent compared with only eight per cent against. Even Tory voters support it by 58 per cent for to 35 per cent against.

But it's Mandelson's critique that Miliband can't win by "clobbering" the rich alone that will strike a chord with former New Labour MPs who never voted for Ed as party leader.

Privately, they grumble that while Labour could still win the election “by default”, Miliband has failed to fire up the electorate. Ditching New Labour's appeal to middle-class voters – which saw Blair win three successive elections – is a strategic error, they believe.

• Countdown to 7 May: check The Week's daily election round-up

Mandelson cautioned Miliband against ideologically-based rhetoric. “I don't think it leads to good policy. It doesn't help you get elected.”

And in a withering attack on Labour’s lack of a coherent economic strategy, he added: “I think people are entitled to expect thought-through, sophisticated responses to serious problems.”

Ed Miliband’s team will doubtless write off Mandelson’s complaint as “same old, same old Mandy”. They will be more excited this morning by the admission by Nigel Farage that the NHS may have to be replaced by a system under which everyone but the very poor takes out private health insurance as they do in the United States.

Farage had to beat a hasty retreat in November after a leaked film showed him raising the idea of replacing the NHS with private health insurance.

Now the Ukip leader has revived the idea, saying his party will have to “return” to it after the May general election.

In an interview with BBC political editor Nick Robinson to be broadcast today, he said: “I triggered a debate within Ukip that was outright rejected by my colleagues, so I have to accept that. As time goes on, this is a debate that we’re all going to have to return to.”

As Lord Lawson, the former Tory Chancellor, once said, the NHS is the nearest thing we have in Britain to a religion. Anyone suggesting it is replaced by private insurance will be regarded as the anti-Christ.

Given the cash crisis facing the NHS, Farage may argue he is being realistic. But it could be just the break that Labour need to explode Ukip's hopes of winning enough seats to hold the balance of power if the election produces a hung parliament.