SDP Founder Lord Owen Could Rejoin Labour Under Ed Miliband

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12201106

I read with interest today that Lord Owen - one of the four MPs who left Labour in 1981 to form the SDP - is considering rejoining the Labour Party.

Lord Owen, who was Foreign Secretary under Jim Callaghan, has now said that he is very impressed with Ed Miliband's leadership so far and believes he has reclaimed some of the ground lost by Labour when Tony Blair was at the helm.

Now, he is considering voting for the Party again, if not rejoining them.

I find this all quite amazing, since David Owen, as he then was, along with Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers and Roy Jenkins all left the Labour Party claiming it had gone too far to the left under Michael Foot's leadership.

Now the Labour peer is claiming that he is ready to rejoin a Party that is being led by a man thought to be more on the left than many other Cabinet ministers in the last government and considered to have won the leadership mainly due the support of the trades unions.

Given how far onto the centre-ground Tony Blair took Labour, I am very surprised indeed that Lord Owen did not publicly state his support for them whilst they in power. 

This will certainly raise a few eyebrows.

I would be very interested to know what has been the nature of the conversations so far between Mr Miliband and Lord Owen.

I also think that, with so many Liberal Democrat supporters unhappy with Nick Clegg's propping up of the Tories right now, having such a prominent figure like David Owen back in the Labour fold could strengthen them as an opposition and encourage many Lib Dems to come over to Labour.

This could possibly increase the likelihood of the Party gaining enough support amongst the electorate for them to return to power very quickly at the next general election.