David Miliband hints at Commons comeback as he won’t rule out standing at next election
Former Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband has refused to rule out a return to Parliament before the next election.
The ex-Foreign Secretary, who lost out to his brother Ed in the 2010 Labour leadership election, said it had “not been decided” when asked if he could return to the political fray.
Mr Miliband has been running aid charity, the International Rescue Committee, in the US since 2013 but he has been dogged by questions over whether he’ll return to politics.
Asked if he’ll “be back in Parliament by the time of the next election”, Mr Miliband told LBC: “That’s not been decided yet. That’s not done.”
He swerved answering further, saying: “I’m not even going to go there because I’ve got to do justice to the people who are working for the International Rescue Committee.”
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Mr Miliband added: “It means a lot to me that job, and I’m very committed to it. The Labour Party [has], thank God, put itself into a position where it’s got good people leading it.
“It’s developing its plans for government. That’s something that I think is really essential for the country that I really care about.”
He said that “if you start thinking about your next job, you get yourself into trouble” but admitted it was “nice” that people anticipated his return to politics.
The comment is the closest he has come yet to confirming a return to British politics.
In the same interview, Mr Miliband also hit out at Brexit, saying: “We’ve lost European cooperation because of Brexit and we have got to build it back.”
He added that the UK had “shredded” its reputation over its handling of the EU departure.
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Mr Miliband was Tony Blair ’s head of policy before Labour swooped to power in 1997, and served as Foreign Secretary between 2007 and 2010.
He is seen as to the political right of his brother Ed but both brothers now appear united around Keir Starmer.
On the Labour leader, Mr Miliband said: “I’m enthusiastic about where Keir Starmer has taken Labour.”
During the Jeremy Corbyn years there were frequent calls for David Miliband to come back to the UK from Labour moderates.
On Twitter, election expert Lewis Baston called the “Jacobite calls” for the self-exiled Labourite to return “toe-curlingly embarrassing”.
Left-wing journalist Aaron Bastani wrote: “The return of David Miliband to front line politics would be confirmation that the only ‘legacy’ of Corbynism was re-invigorating the Labour right.”