12 Things Ed Miliband Wants You To Forget

9. He Forgot The Name Of One Of The Candidates For Scottish Labour in 2011... Yet He Is Fighting To Save His Party's Vote From Being Decimated North Of The Border

During the 2011 Scottish Labour leadership election, Miliband had his first real opportunity to cement his place at the very head of the party - and establish a firm base north of the border. The Scottish National Party (SNP) had been rapidly eating away at Labour's traditional core industrial vote, and their growth had been so rapid that in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections they had won an overall majority for the first time - prompting Ian Gray to stand down as Scottish Labour leader. Embarrassingly for Miliband, he forgot the name of one of the three main candidates for the Scottish Labour leadership election - Ken Macintosh - during a live interview in September 2011. Johann Lamont eventually went on to secure the leadership with 51.77% of the vote, but Miliband's inability to name all three candidates suggested he was not even paying attention to the situation in Scotland. Miliband must surely realise that the Scottish vote will be key as to whether or not he will be taking up residence at Number 10 Downing Street in May or not - and yet gaffes like this one, albeit four years ago, do not exactly endear him to voters north of the border. It therefore appears highly likely that Labour's traditional Scottish vote will be decimated in this general election, rendering an outright majority victory for Miliband highly improbable.