ED Miliband has refused to support a charity campaign for wounded troops — for
fear of offending Labour lefties.
While all three leaders of the other main parties backed Help for Heroes’ new
fundraising push, he turned down four requests from The Sun to wear one of
the charity’s new “Friend” wristbands.
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage happily joined forces to endorse
the drive to persuade Brits to sign up to direct debit donations.
Mr Miliband’s private refusals came as he publicly gave Labour backing to air
strikes in Iraq.
His aides have given us a string of excuses since we first approached them
seven days ago.
First they said Ed was too busy with the Scottish referendum, then that he had
to work on his conference speech.
Yesterday morning, they said he was discussing IS air strikes. In the
afternoon our request got no response at all.
But insiders say Mr Miliband feared another row with left-wing MPs if he
helped The Sun.
In June he made a pathetic apology to them for posing for a snap with our
World Cup pull-out.
Last night Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary Vernon Coaker agreed to back the
Help For Heroes campaign.
He told The Sun: “I’m delighted to support Help for Heroes and the tremendous
work it does.
“And I want to thank The Sun for its continuing support of our Armed Forces.”
See
some of the celebrities backing the new Help for Heroes campaign