David Miliband could be the surprise appointment in a future Andy Burnham cabinet – amid suggestions the former foreign secretary could return to frontline politics after more than a decade away.
The elder Miliband – who has run the New York-based International Rescue Committee since quitting Parliament in 2013 – has become the subject of fresh speculation in Westminster, where talk has turned to whether he could be lured back to the Foreign Office he last held under Gordon Brown.
There were murmurs that Miliband, who’s younger brother Ed is Energy Secretary, was interested in returning to the Commons around the last general election when he repeatedly declined to rule out a comeback.
But the discussions this time are said to centre on a more unusual route: that he might accept a seat in the House of Lords and walk straight into the cabinet as Foreign Secretary.
It is a path with a recent precedent. David Cameron, the former Conservative Prime Minister, was ennobled and made Foreign Secretary on the same day in November 2023 – demonstrating that a senior cabinet post can be held by a member of the House of Lords.
Miliband would be a ‘no brainer’ Burnham backers say
“There have been discussions about David returning and it’s an idea that is worth taking seriously if Andy is back in Parliament,” said a Labour source.
Whether any of this amounts to genuine planning or simple Westminster wishful thinking is unclear and the entire scenario hinges on Burnham winning Thursday’s Makerfield by-election swiftly followed by the keys to Downing Street.
Miliband failed to catergorically rule out a return when asked by The i Paper, however, instead declining to comment on the speculation.
However, the idea does appear to have some support among Burnham’s backers.
Some argue that a figure of Miliband’s international standing would lend immediate credibility to a fledgling Burnham government and to a foreign policy agenda still in its infancy, buying a new administration both gravitas and breathing room on the world stage.
“It’s a no brainer,” added one senior Labour insider.
Were the speculation to come to anything, it would raise the remarkable prospect of both Miliband brothers sitting around the cabinet table once again.
Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, is expected to be given a plum role in any future Burnham Cabinet. He has previously been linked with the role of Chancellor – an appointment that would hand the brothers two of the great offices of state between them if David were made Foreign Secretary.
The pair famously fell out during the 2010 Labour leadership race, when both stood and David, the early frontrunner, led on the first ballot only to be edged out by Ed on trade union second preferences. The defeat prompted the elder brother to leave British politics altogether.
They both stood against Burnham in the contest, who lost and was pushed into fourth place behind the schools secretary Ed Balls.
2010 Labour leadership candidates (left to right) Ed Balls, Ed Miliband, Diane Abbott, Andy Burnham and David Miliband drawing lots in the green room for the order they will be speaking in for a Labour Leadership debate on BBC Newsnight . Pic: Katie Collins; Provider: PAAngela Rayner also tipped for a return under Burnham
With the Makerfield by-election just days away, speculation about a putative Burnham cabinet has intesied in recent days.
According to a report in The Sunday Times, Burnham’s supporters are encouraging Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to take on the role as his Chancellor.
However, Mahmood’s camp has played it down with a source close to her saying she was focused entirely on her job as Home Secretary and dismissed the talk as “speculation and nonsense”.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has also tipped to return to frontline politics – potentially as Burnham’s education secretary, while Lucy Powell, Labour’s Deputy Leader, and Louise Haigh, the former Transport Secretary, are also expected to be rewarded with prominent Cabinet roles.
Miliband spent much of the long run-up to the 2024 election keeping the door to a comeback conspicuously ajar.
Asked on LBC in late 2022 whether he would be back in Parliament by the time of the next election, he said it had “not been decided yet” – a reply widely read as the closest he had yet come to signalling a return.
The non-denial set off a wave of speculation about his intentions.
The chatter intensified during the general election campaign. Miliband did not put himself forward to stand on 4 July 2024, but he appeared on the campaign trail supporting Labour candidates in a number of borderline constituencies – including Lincoln and Aylesbury – appearances that triggered fresh suggestions he could be paving the way for a return and a future role in a Starmer government.
A spokeswoman for David Miliband declined to comment. He has never explicitly ruled out a comeback in the decade since leaving politics.
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