David Miliband might struggle to find room in today’s Labour

Starmer’s party has moved on from Brexit but Miliband clearly hasn’t, says Sean O’Grady

Sibling rivalry in the 2010 Labour leadership campaign (Getty Images)

It seems to surprise people that David Miliband, fresh faced and energetic, is 57 years of age – one year younger than Nigel Farage, whose prolific intake of English ale and Rothmans fags is written all over his prematurely-aged frogface.

Talk of comebacks swirl around both these political veterans, with only the flimsiest of denials. Miliband quit parliament in 2013, a couple of years after he lost the Labour leadership race to his brother. Asked on Andrew Marr’s LBC show about a return, he merely replied: “That’s not been decided yet. That’s not done.” He’s available, in other words.

While it’s fairly plain what professional disrupter Farage is up to – causing trouble for Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt – it’s not so clear with Miliband. Obviously he is doing excellent work at International Rescue, but he’s been out of British politics for a while; he sat out his brother’s leadership, the Corbyn years, Brexit and Covid. While the likes of Ed Miliband, Keir Starmer, Jon Ashworth and Yvette Cooper trudged through the lean times, David was in New York. No tedious arguments with Momentum, futile Opposition Day motions, deselection scraps or dismal election nights for our David. His re-entry from orbit may be a little turbulent, and he would be well advised to avoid the impression that he’s simply back to reclaim his Blairite birthright or that he’s only interested in the working people of Britain when Labour is well ahead in the polls.