EdStone

This article is about the political object. For the village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, see Edstone. For people with that name, see Edward Stone (disambiguation).
Ed Miliband and Labour campaigners stand infront of the EdStone, which is significantly taller than anybody in the photograph.
Ed Miliband unveils the EdStone

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Ed Miliband

Leader of the Labour Party

Elections

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The "EdStone" was a large stone tablet which was commissioned by the Labour Party during the 2015 general election.[1] The stone was 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in) tall and featured six election pledges carved into it, together with the Labour logo, and a copy of the signature of the party leader Ed Miliband. It was much mocked; for example, John Rentoul, a biographer of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, described it as the "most absurd, ugly, embarrassing, childish, silly, patronising, idiotic, insane, ridiculous gimmick I have ever seen".[2]

The Labour Party failed to declare the cost of the stone in its election finances report, which led to an investigation by the Electoral Commission that uncovered £150,000 of undisclosed payments by the party during the election. The commission reported that the treasurer had committed two offences and the party was fined.[3]

  1. ^ P. Cowley; D. Kavanagh (14 July 2016). The British General Election of 2015. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 195–6. ISBN 978-1-137-36611-5.
  2. ^ "John Rentoul on Twitter". Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  3. ^ "Electoral Commission concludes investigation into Labour Party's 2015 General Election spending" (Press release). Electoral Commission. 25 October 2016.