Sun mocks Miliband for turning down Help for Heroes photo op
Miliband absent as Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Nigel Farage pose on Sun front page with Help for Heroes wristband
Patrick Wintour, political editor
theguardian.com, Thursday 25 September 2014 10.04 BST

The Sun’s front page today. Photograph: The Sun
Ed Miliband was locked in another war with the powerful Sun newspaper after the news organisation claimed he had refused to join their campaign to support Help for Heroes, which helps British army veterans.
Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Nigel Farage all posed on the front page of the Sun with a Help for Heroes wristband.
However, Miliband’s aides said he was too busy dealing with a shadow cabinet meeting about whether the UK should join attacks on Islamic State (Isis).
According to the newspaper, the Labour party leader turned down four requests to endorse a campaign for Help for Heroes “for fear of offending Labour lefties”.
The Sun’s front page contrasts images of Cameron, Clegg and Farage sporting the wristbands with a white square in place of Miliband.
But a Labour source said: “It’s untrue that Ed refused to back the Help for Heroes campaign. He was busy with the shadow cabinet discussing how to respond to the Isil [Isis] threat in Iraq.”
The Sun said: ““We approached him [Miliband] four times in total. Most recently yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon and told him it was going to happen and he would be empty chaired if he didn’t do it.
“He was not asked to hold up anything Sun branded. Every day this week there has been a Help for Heroes feature or news story, it has been well flagged up. The other three political leaders posed with selfies.
“The idea that it would have been a big chunk out of his day is just wrong. It was absolutely not a stitch up, this was the next part of the campaign.”
More classic millibandus here:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/25/sun-ed-miliband-help-for-heroes