"You voted for it. Why are you clapping?"

"You voted for it. Why are you clapping?"

The words of David Miliband to Harriet Harman according to Channel 4 News who report:

'He used the hour-long speech - coming just three days after he beat his brother to become the Labour leader - to distance himself from some of the policies of his party when in government - most notably declaring that the invasion of Iraq was "wrong".

The criticism caused some consternation in the conference hall.

In a moment captured by ITN cameras, Harriet Harman clapped Ed Miliband's criticism of the war, his brother David Miliband asked her: "You voted for it. Why are you clapping?"

Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon said: "David Miliband's hands stayed firmly apart. His face tenses as Ed Miliband says the words then he looks down at Harriet Harman's hands and then says the words. Harriet Harman's remarks back to David Miliband aren't audible on the tape. But his words are. He doesn't look like a man who is going to hang around in the Shadow Cabinet to me."'

I see this exchange has also been reported by The Guardian and even by the BBC who report it thus:

'David Miliband has been caught on film rebuking a former cabinet minister for applauding his brother who said Labour was "wrong" to go to war in Iraq.

Ed Miliband, who was not an MP when Iraq was invaded, raised the issue in his first speech as Labour leader.

Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband was filmed turning to Harriet Harman and asking: "You voted for it, why are you clapping?"

­Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and Andy Burnham also did not applaud.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the unscripted aside from David Miliband illustrated how he, and other former Labour ministers, "deeply resent" the way in which Ed Miliband used his "rather less than public opposition to the war" to win the party leadership.

Ed Miliband - who beat his brother to the party leadership - has previously said he did not back the decision to go to war in Iraq. '

The BBC have decided that Ed Miliband's not being an MP in 2003 and so not voting to go to war in Iraq gets him off the hook. In the above piece this obviously crucial fact is mentioned three times and is used as the caption for the top of article picture, as shown here...

It is true that Ed Miliband was not an MP in 2003 and so could not vote for or against the war. However he has been an MP since 2005 and his voting record on Iraq related matters is there for all to see at Public Whip:

'Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war.'

'voted strongly against the policy Iraq Investigation - Necessary'

Ed Miliband and the BBC happily whitewashing the new labour leader just as they have done in the past.