Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband sprang a surprise on Friday when he named former interior minister Alan Johnson as spokesman on finance, the main political battleground with the coalition government. Johnson, who is 60 and worked as a postman before entering politics, has served in a variety of government posts but has not had a high profile on economic issues.
The finance role had been expected to go to Ed Balls or his wife Yvette Cooper. Balls was named as shadow home secretary, while Cooper will represent Labour on foreign affairs. Balls, a close ally of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had been the most aggressive critic of government policy during his own failed bid for the party leadership.
Analysts said that had made it difficult for Miliband to appoint him to the finance role and stamp his own authority on the party. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, a senior Conservative, dismissed Johnson as a "caretaker" appointment and challenged him to set out his views on the economy.
Johnson will be thrust into the front line this month when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition unveils plans to cut 83 billion pounds ($131.8 billion) out of public spending in the next four to five years. Labour has argued that the plans are too aggressive and risk sending Britain back into recession. Miliband has not set out his own stance on the deficit yet, describing the previous strategy of halving it over four years as a starting point.
Critics of the new Labour leader note the fact that he won his position thanks to strong union backing and have nicknamed him "Red Ed". However, the appointment of the centrist Johnson does not fit that crude stereotype. "Ed Miliband had to decide what he was going to do about the deficit and Ed Balls had to decide whether he was going to toe the line, putting those together would always be difficult," said Mark Wickham-Jones, a politics professor at Bristol University in western England.
Wickham-Jones said Johnson was a good compromise at a time when several senior Labour politicians, including Brown and former finance minister Alistair Darling, had stepped aside from senior positions. "Johnson is a jack-of-all-trades, he's a serious politician," he said.
Labour ruled for 13 years until May when it was replaced by the Conservative-led coalition after a close election. The party is hoping that opposition to unprecedented spending cuts will ensure it a swift return to power. "Together, this new generation of Labour will work together to reject the pessimism of this coalition government as we set out our vision of what Britain can achieve," Miliband said in a statement.