There we have it, David Miliband has announced that he is standing down from frontline
politics. In his statement just now, he fluted all the anticipated notes. “The party needs a fresh start from its new leader,” he started, before adding that, “I genuinely fear
perpetual, distracting and destructive attempts to find division where none exists, and splits where they don’t exist, all to the detriment of the party.” He said he will stay on as an
MP, although he wants to do further work in the areas of education, the environment and foreign policy.
It puts something of a fullstop under his career at the top of the Labour party, although I’m sure that new paragraphs will be written in future. How will he be judged? With a mixture of respect and mockery, I expect. Some will remember the policy advisor, there in the early days of the Blair project, who rose to be Foreign Secretary by the age of 41. Others will remember the banana-wielding wonk who shied away from challenging Brown on two occasions. Many might surmise that he would have been better off moving for the leadership during the dark days of 2008 and 2009.
I, like many on the right, often dwelt on Miliband’s flaws. And it’s true, he wasn’t the most brilliant of foreign secretaries, nor the most inspirational of politicians. But the recent leadership campaign, and indeed his speech on Monday, showed what he is capable of. Even his outburst last night was principled in a way that many of his colleagues aren’t. Little wonder why lots of Tories saw him as the greatest threat to the coalition government; as the candidate with a prime ministerial edge.
There will be the argument that, after promising to stay on if his brother won, David Miliband is now showing a distinct lack of integrity and class. That’s the point that Rod makes over at his blog today. But I’m not so sure. If he had suggested before Saturday that he might quit, then it would have been taken as a declaration of war against MiliE. If he had stayed on now, particularly after last night, then he would have been attacked as a destabilising presence.
Damned either way, then – but at least he’s got
Hillary to help him find further work.
UPDATE: In an interview with Nick Robinson just now, MiliD didn’t rule out a return to the frontbench in future.
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