The Tories are so livid about the widely briefed speech that Ed Miliband is to give at Chatham House today that they are calling for him to withdraw his words before he’s actually said them. Ed will use the speech to politicise migrant drownings in the Mediterranean by accusing Cameron of “abandoning” Libya after the 2011 intervention, thus causing the migrant crisis to happen. Ed of course backed the Libyan airstrikes, though not any troops on the ground in the aftermath…

Guido has checked and Miliband has only mentioned Libya once in a press release since 2013. Suddenly two weeks out from the election he suddenly thinks it’s the single most important foreign policy issue – and the subject of his only speech on foreign policy so far. It is inconceivable that Miliband’s Blair-booing Labour Party would have voted to put the troops on the ground needed to bolster any post-conflict settlement and restore order. Vague empty words about planning are worthless and Miliband’s blocking of a decisive Western intervention (“standing up to Obama”) in Syria only added to the refugee crisis in the region. Labour’s lack of support for boots on the ground – as advocated by Tony Blair – added to the regional chaos …

UPDATE:

Labour are now claiming they never tried to link Cameron to the Med, yet here is their briefing sent out yesterday doing just that:

We report, you decide…