Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

So what will David Miliband do if he is defeated by Brother Ed?

Will he stay or will he go?

By Mehdi Hasan Published 13 September 2010 16:07

In my interview with David Miliband in July in the magazine, I pushed the shadow foreign secretary on whether he'd quit the shadow cabinet if he lost to his younger brother, Ed, on 25 September. Mili-D replied, after some ducking and dodging of the original question:

I'm not walking away from the people of South Shields. I'm not walking away from the Labour Party . . . I'm very happy to serve under anyone.

Since that interview, more and more "friends" and "allies" of the elder Miliband have suggested he simply would not be able to serve under Ed and that we would indeed see the former foreign secretary "walking away" from front-bench politics. As this magazine has argued, that would be a "tragedy" for the Labour Party.

So, on yesterday's Politics Show, on BBC1, I thought I'd ask David to clarify his position and ask whether he'd give an explicit, on-air guarantee that he'd stay in the shadow cabinet under an Ed Miliband leadership. He responded:

Of course. And I am absolutely clear about my intentions, my assumptions, and I answered that very, very clearly.

The presenter, Jon Sopel, then asked him whether it would be "difficult" to serve under Ed, to which David replied, after a pause:

I don't think . . . I don't know, is the truth.

Hmm. I tried winding him up again, later on, pointing out that "I could never serve under my younger brother" (note: I don't have a younger brother!), and the shadow foreign secretary responded with this firm and rather amusing statement:

That says a lot about why you're in journalism and I'm in politics. I'm a man of infinite patience and you're a man of infinite impatience.

Assuming Ed Miliband wins -- and despite the new Sunday Times/YouGov poll suggesting he will, it's still a big "if" -- let's see how "infinite" David's patience is . . .

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Tags: Ed Miliband David Miliband Labour leadership

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17 comments

Tue, 2010-09-14 12:18 — Clem the Gem

I have to say i like Davids' last comment - as an older brother myself!
Would rather see Ed as leader, and a good showing for Abbott, leading to a more balanced Labour shadow cabinet- jobs for Cruddas, Johnson, Mcdonald and the the other leadership hopefuls. We need to change shadow Scottish Secretary though - he has always been untrustworthy.

Tue, 2010-09-14 14:33 — stuart (not verified)

joe,the military industrial complex must find some conflict to test there new weapons out,its a multi billion pound industry mate that keeps a hell of alot of people in work.

Mon, 2010-09-13 16:29 — Mark C (not verified)

In fairness to David, I once worked under my brother in a shoe shop, that didnt work out well, so it would be admirable (and preferable!) for David to stay if Ed wins. (DISCLAIMER Under no circumstances am I comparing shoe retail to high office but you get my drift).

Plus it would look quite immature/sore of David to leave politics if he loses, unless he would have done so had he lost to Ed Balls or Andy Burnham instead.

Mon, 2010-09-13 16:43 — stuart (not verified)

tony blair must be sitting there laughing his head off at this farce with the millibands,fact n01.if tony blair did not resign and hand over power to gordon brown new labour would be sitting there in power today with a 105 majority in the houses of corruption,bet you a £100 if tony blair was still the leader of new labour they would of been unbeatable.

Mon, 2010-09-13 17:01 — undercoveragent (not verified)

@Stuart

I presume you meant ... would have been unbeatable.

The triumph of New Labour's education policies, eh!

Mon, 2010-09-13 17:10 — Reginald-Fah-fah

That Tony Blair chat don't wash anymore!!!

David will need to reprogramme from 'Tony Blair mode'!

Gordon Brown had more chance of winning, if he stepped his game up two weeks earlier during 2010 General Election!

Ed Miliband is the future business and the founder of the 'Progressive Labour Party'! That better than the 'New Labour brand', which 'stinks!'

Mon, 2010-09-13 17:26 — joetheplumber

As Chomsky puts it with reference specifically to the US but equally applicable to the UK: 'there is basically one party - the business party'. So why does it matter who leads Labour? I am genuinely interested.

Mon, 2010-09-13 17:30 — Des Demona (not verified)

@ Joe

Perhaps Labour is the acceptable face of capitalism?

Mon, 2010-09-13 17:54 — stuart (not verified)

i had my doubts about tony blair,but after watching his interview with andrew marr on bbc 2 last week i have become a tony blair convert,tony blair in my opinion is one of the most decent and honest politicians we have ever had and i am no fan of the left or right,in fact looking at tony blairs legacy i would say he was the best prime minister we have had since winston churcill.

Mon, 2010-09-13 18:04 — writeoff (not verified)

Well, he's killed a lot of people in Iraq, so there's a parallel for starters Stuart.

Joe, the best we can hope for is degrees is non-compliance with the demands of the corporate elite, preferably electing any leftie who runs their mouth off making promises before the machine gets them cornered and they start backing out of their manifestos. DM has already been through that. He calls this process 'patience'.

Mon, 2010-09-13 18:05 — writeoff (not verified)

degrees of

Mon, 2010-09-13 19:07 — stuart (not verified)

write off, lets agree on one thing,yes tony did kill alot of people in iraq and that is very sad but tony did save many muslims lives in bosnia and kosovo in which he never gets much credit and both be classed as illegal wars against the communist goverment of serbia at the time,so you win some and you lose some is what i guess tony thinks about these accusastions fired at him.

Wed, 2010-09-15 19:35 — clinesteronbeademungen (not verified)

There is no acceptable face of capitalism

Mon, 2010-09-13 20:17 — R G Bhargee (not verified)

Ed Miliband is the best placed to unite Labour and defeat the coalition

Sat, 2010-09-25 06:04 — Darren Canning (not verified)

Who ever wins I await with hope how they will clarify that the view of the Labour Party they have offered during the campaign is both different to that of the other candidates and the same as that of the other candidates supporters. For this election to have been meaningful and the party to pull together both are needed. Good luck.

Tue, 2010-09-14 08:52 — JM13

Granted, Tony Blair showed a certain humanitarian resolve in Kosovo. In the former Bosnian crisis, it was Major who acted. In respect of Kosovo, however, you must recognise that the means employed by the NATO coalition arguably exacerbated and precipitated widespread killings. High-altitude NATO bombings was perhaps a politically expedient means of warfare but not humanitarian.

Sun, 2010-09-19 11:41 — Joe Public

The Labour Party could and should more accurately be described as FACIST rather than Socialist. The Labour party has implemented policies which support one section of a society, to the extreme detriment of another section of that society [via blatant theft and cronyism] The most notable characteristic of a fascist country is the separation and persecution or denial of equality to a specific segment of the population Simply stated, a fascist government always has one class of citizens that is considered superior to another. The preferred class lives in relative comfort, while the oppressed class lives in a fascist state. Or do you really believe in the 21Centurty that FACISM would be as obvious, as a bunch of stormtroopers walking down the street, wearing black shirts? A VOTE FOR THE LABOUR PARTY IS A VOTE FOR FACISM.