There’s only one ‘L’ in Miliband, Mr Axelrod

Labour’s new election guru has been handed his first mission: learning to spell the party leader’s name.

David Axelrod met Ed Miliband and the shadow cabinet yesterday after being brought in to beef up their 2015 poll prospects.

But the ex-Barack Obama aide was left red-faced after spelling his latest client’s name “Milliband” in a post on Twitter.

And he may well have been shocked when he signed up to Mr Miliband’s own feed to find posts announcing the Opposition leader was resigning.

The account being “followed” by Mr Axelrod is a spoof that uses the same incorrect spelling.

Some Westminster observers joked that the message might have been Mr Axelrod’s revenge on the party for spelling his own name wrongly in the announcement of his recruitment.

“David Alexrod” joins the team, its website declared at the time.

Mr Miliband played down the gaffe – pointing out that he had himself been left red-faced by social media errors.

“That’s the perils of tweeting. I have been a victim of bad tweeting myself,” he said.

In 2012, a post on the Labour leader’s account marking the death of TV presenter Bob Holness referred to him as the host of Blackbusters rather than Blockbusters.

“That’s the kind of thing that happens,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.

Mr Miliband denied the hiring of Mr Axelrod signalled an intent to engage in a negative campaign, insisting he brought in the man credited with helping secure two White House terms for Mr Obama for “his values”.

“This is what he has been saying to us this week. I will let you into the secret,” he said.

“It is all about what he sees and what I see as an absolutely defining question for our generation. You see growing inequality in many developed countries and the question so many people are asking – and that is why I think this is such an unpredictable election because there is big discontent – is about whether hard work and building a good life for yourself and your family, whether that is now permanently disconnected.

“This is my big mission in politics.”

Axelrod profile: The election guru with a winning record