David Maddox: Ed Miliband has the title of leader, but who is really following whom in the Labour Party?

LAST night Labour leader Ed Miliband had his weekly meeting with the parliamentary party in the Commons, where he received the traditional table-thumping reception. His problem is that the louder the beating of furniture the worse his predicament is.

The title “leader” is used for Mr Miliband, but the real question is just who is following?

According to the most recent Yougov poll, he is following the Tories and David Cameron, who have a two-point lead despite bringing in tax rises and tough austerity cuts.

More worryingly, he also appeared to be following his shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, who announced a new policy on freezing public-sector pay, which he then had to agree to.

This new policy, incidentally, annoyed the one part of the electoral college that supported him in the leadership election: the unions. Throw your minds back and you will remember MPs and ordinary members on balance wanted to follow his big brother, David.

It is becoming harder to find a Labour back-bencher who will privately say what a wonderful leader he is, and in his increasingly inept performances at Prime Minister’s Questions, you can see their heads sagging and shoulders dropping quickly.

Last week was a classic, where he was right and Mr Cameron was wrong, but the Prime Minister still looked like the winner by staying calm and condescending while Mr Miliband had what was effectively a tantrum over just what Labour had done to railway ticket prices. By question three, nobody apart from him cared.

Not even Labour’s core areas of support are following any more. Alex Salmond increasingly appears to be getting a grip on Scotland and Mr Miliband was a notable fringe player in the referendum excitement this month.

Meanwhile, Mr Miliband’s shadow cabinet appears to be doing the leading on policy and saying where the party needs to go, whether it is Mr Balls, his wife, the shadow home secreteary Yvette Cooper, former Scottish secretary Jim Murphy, or shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne.

Mr Murphy, now shadow defence, and Ms Cooper are being widely touted by “friends” as being the choice for the next leader when – as opposed to if – 32 MPs call for a new ballot.

Mr Murphy represents the Blairite right of the party, especially as David Miliband is unlikely to come back to unseat his own brother, and Ms Cooper, the likely victor in such a contest, the more traditional left and unions side.

Supporters of both have been saying that bad results in May – notably losing London and Glasgow – could be the end for Miliband.

But Labour MPs famously were unable to find the nerve to get rid of Gordon Brown, so the only thing that might save Mr Miliband, other than an electoral miracle, is the inability of his back-benchers to find that elusive backbone.