DANIEL JOHNSON: Spare us the return of David Miliband, that pompous relic of Blairism who’s still in thrall to Brussels
Few politicians have railed against Brexit as angrily as David Miliband.
Three months before the 2016 referendum, the former Labour Foreign Secretary described any ‘Leave’ vote as ‘an act of political arson that risks the destruction of international order’.
Once the people had spoken, he was no less passionate in his denunciation, calling the decision ‘an unparalleled act of self-harm’.
And this week he was at it again. In a speech to the think-tank Chatham House, Mr Miliband insisted that it made sense for Britain to align itself more closely with the EU and be a ‘rule-taker’ from Brussels once again.
Pictured: David Miliband, President & CEO, International Rescue Committee, speaks onstage during the 2021 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York on September 22, 2021
It is this dismissive attitude to the democratic will of the British people that makes him so dangerous — and why we should all be deeply concerned that he is now refusing to rule out standing for Parliament at the next General Election.
Humiliation
Asked about a return to frontline politics, Mr Miliband said: ‘That has not been decided yet.’
Naturally, the mere suggestion that the 57-year-old might soon be back in the Commons is enough to send his ageing fan club in the Labour Party into a delirium of delight.
Ever since his departure in 2013 to run the International Rescue Committee in New York, Blairites have seen him as their king over the water.
Even the fact that he is paid a seven-figure salary — $1,045,597 (£870,000), to be precise — as president of a charity that has received more than £110 million from the British aid budget over the past three years does not dismay Miliband loyalists.
Nor are they fazed by the fact that, in addition to his extraordinarily generous package of salary, pension and other benefits, Miliband holds numerous lucrative directorships — and is said to trouser fees of up to $100,000 as an after-dinner speaker.
Among his admirers, Mr Miliband’s wealth only adds to his allure. They see their hero as a far more glamorous, globetrotting figure than the party leader Sir Keir Starmer — almost a Blair de nos jours.
It is unrealistic to expect Mr Miliband to topple Starmer as Labour leader any time soon. But if he does return to Parliament as part of a Labour landslide in 2024 or 2025, it would be hard, given his profile, for the new Prime Minister to deny him one of the great offices of state.
This would, of course, mean David Miliband sharing the Cabinet table with his younger brother Ed, currently the Shadow Energy Secretary, and the man who beat him in the 2010 Labour leadership contest, a humiliation that led David to flounce off to the U.S.
Pictured: Miliband attends The Future of Everything presented by the Wall Street Journal at Spring Studios on May 17, 2022 in New York City
I have no doubt that if Mr Miliband were back in his old job at the Foreign Office, he would single-mindedly pursue the Remainiac agenda of handing back control to European institutions, as a prelude to re-entering the single market and one day rejoining the EU altogether.
Never mind that such a policy would painfully reopen old wounds, both in his party and in the country. David Miliband has a sense of entitlement that blinds him to the potentially disastrous consequences of trying to turn the clock back to the pre-Brexit era.
During the last Labour government, he thought it fitting to serve in a Cabinet that promoted mass immigration from Europe, even when polls revealed growing concern among voters about the impact on jobs, wages, housing and public services.
We may be sure any Labour administration in which Mr Miliband played a key role would result in the UK begging the EU like a supplicant to grant us membership of the single market and allow freedom of movement, regardless of the cost or the implications for national sovereignty.
Along with his disdain for the patriotic instincts of the 17 million who voted for Brexit, people he would no doubt consider ignorant plebeians, Mr Miliband seems to have picked up the patronising attitude to his native country that is common among the liberal American elites.
He recently alleged the UK was now regarded in the U.S. with ‘sadness and pity, as well as laughter’. Perhaps his progressive contacts in the Democratic Party, such as his great friend Hillary Clinton, do sneer at Britain — helped along by their favourite newspaper, the Britain-hating New York Times.
It was, after all, Mrs Clinton’s ill-disguised condescension towards the people she dubbed ‘deplorables’ in her own country that partly cost her the presidency in 2016.
Mr Miliband has all of the ex-First Lady’s brittle arrogance, but none of her husband Bill’s charm or charisma. To the Clintons’ ostentation, he brings a narcissism that is entirely his own.
Perhaps Sir Keir Starmer imagines that a man who left politics before he himself even became an MP might be grateful to be restored to high office. If so, Labour’s leader is deluding himself.
Cowardly
The rather wooden Mr Miliband may come across to Brits like a Thunderbirds puppet, but his role as head of International Rescue has fed his delusions of grandeur.
In his own eyes he is already a great statesman, and he might well treat Sir Keir just as he treated Gordon Brown, the PM who promoted him to be Foreign Secretary in 2007.
Within a year, Mr Miliband was teasing the media with a possible leadership challenge. He was willing to wound his then boss, whose popularity had plummeted — but was too cowardly to strike.
Pictured: Miliband speaks in a climate panel during a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event in New York City on November 30, 2022
Then, at the Labour conference, he was notoriously photographed brandishing a banana. Overnight David Miliband became a national joke, and deservedly so, since a disciplined approach to public conduct is an element of the art of statesmanship that he conspicuously lacks.
Lack of dignity is one thing; lack of judgment is another. One of the companies that boasts David Miliband on its advisory board is the aptly named Giant Ventures.
One of the companies backed by this venture capital firm is a start-up called Field Energy run by Amit Gudka, who was co-founder of the energy supplier Bulb. This collapsed spectacularly a year ago, leaving taxpayers with a bill for £6.5 billion — roughly £230 for every household in Britain.
Pampered
Gudka and his business partner Hayden Wood walked away ‘scot-free’, leaving MPs calling for them to return the millions they paid themselves, and — despite his role in the debacle — Giant Ventures has given Wood a role as ‘a highly valued venture partner’.
Wood and Gudka have been described in the Mail as hipper versions of shamed RBS tycoon ‘Fred the Shred’ — but Miliband seems to think there’s nothing wrong about being associated with them.
It is extraordinary that a man who fancies himself capable of leading this country could turn a blind eye to one of the worst business failures of modern times — and think nobody would notice. The idea that this pompous, pampered relic of Blairism might now be aspiring to lead UK plc makes my blood run cold.
Miliband recently opined that ‘we could double our intelligence and diplomacy budgets for the same cost as a 10 per cent increase in the defence budget’.
That he would prefer diplomats to soldiers in the midst of the first major European war since 1945 tells you all you need to know.
This is a man who has enjoyed power and wealth without responsibility for too long. Banana Man slipped up in his first bid to be PM.
If David Miliband is allowed to launch a second political career, it will be no laughing matter for the rest of us.
DANIEL JOHNSON is editor of TheArticle.com
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