The Daily Mail has scored an own goal.

The infamously combative right-wing newspaper ran a series of articles last week attempting to tie the slightly left-of-center British Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, to the specter of his father Ralph, a significant intellectual figure in postwar Marxist thought. This followed a Labour Party Conference widely considered a success for both the party and its leader, less than two years ahead of the next general election.

It is doubtful that the newspaper, which has the second highest circulation in the United Kingdom and claims to be the mouthpiece for middle England, countenanced the backlash its articles would provoke, even from usually sympathetic corners of the political spectrum.