This Is Our England: Labour leader @Ed_Miliband backs today's special edition. #DoUsProud pic.twitter.com/hk4ROIyLOH

— The Sun (@TheSun) June 12, 2014

It has been claimed that Ed Miliband was forced to apologise to the people of Liverpool after seemingly the entire city jumped aboard the outrage bus over the Labour leader’s photo holding the Sun. Politics.co.uk report on a meeting with Scouse MPs yesterday:

“[Miliband] was left in no doubt whatsoever about what they thought. Ed Miliband said he was very, very sorry.”

The sincerity of these words should be looked at in perspective: Miliband gratefully accepted the chance of an op-ed for the Sun on Sunday in January and was photographed and filmed going around London with the Sun cabbie just last month. He also posed with the paper in 2011 and 2012. It is almost as if he has calculated that Liverpool will vote Labour anyway…