Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Miliband will not run for the leadership, and the Blairites are to blame

Miliband will not run for the leadership, and the Blairites are to blame

Tony Blair, at least, knows how to keep his silence. When asked about David Miliband’s leadership prospects at his press conference on Tuesday, he repeatedly dodged all questions — knowing that so much as a supportive grunt from him would damage the Environment Secretary’s chances. But as he probably already knew, the issue had been resolved. The Prime Minister’s allies have been less discreet, and their support proved toxic. It was, in a brutal irony, the older Blairites who administered the kiss of death to Miliband’s chances of becoming the next PM.

The rumblings of the past few weeks are the closest the Labour party is going to get to a serious leadership contest. In practice, we have witnessed a mini-Cold War. As the Environment Secretary has coyly denied that he will be ‘seduced’ into standing, the Brown team has been doing its best to portray him as a Continuity Blairite puppet. Astonishingly, the Prime Minister’s allies marched straight into the Brownite trap.

David Cameron, it should not be forgotten, originally said that the idea of his leading the Conservative party was ‘for the birds’, only to race to glory in December 2005. Many in the Labour party, watching the Tory revival and fearful of the polls, hoped that Mr Miliband would follow suit. The high point of his dalliance with candidacy was the little-noticed formula he used on BBC’s Any Questions on 30 March. Invited to rule himself out yet again, he said yet again that he was not running — then added the crucial qualification that ‘nothing has happened to make me change my mind’. In other words, something might. Pressed on the matter, he said: ‘I’m not going to get into this any further … I’m not going to get into a great big Kremlinological event.’

Astute Kremlinologists will have noticed that he left himself much less wriggle room when speaking on Tuesday to the BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson.

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