Ed Miliband gets gay vote
Monday, 6 September 2010 4:55 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Ed Miliband has overtaken his brother as the favoured Labour leadership candidate of gay party members.
A poll for pinknews.co.uk put Ed Miliband on 42% of lesbian, gay and transsexual members, with his brother David Miliband slipping to 31%.
The news was attributed by the website to Ed Miliband's desire to see gay couples get the same rights as straight ones. He called civil partnerships "not good enough" in a recent editorial highlighting "the cruel consequences of the current compromise".
The poll questioned 680 LGBT members and 236 non-party members who voted Labour in May or would do tomorrow.
Of the latter group Diane Abbott emerged as the winner, taking 36% to Ed Miliband's 35%. David Miliband scored just 20%.
Ed Miliband was the last of the candidates to support LGBT marriage equality but has since come out in favour of ending the ban on gay men donating blood.
"Of those that do have a vote this month, Ed Miliband is by far the most popular choice and we know that who ever goes on to lead the Labour party will almost certainly be a Miliband," the website said in an editorial.
"If the elder brother is successful, we urge him to follow the same policies on LGBT rights that his young brother has advocated."
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