𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

In one respect, it’s quite simple. If I was PM, I’d send him packing. I wouldn’t have him anywhere near my cabinet. He’d be a menace. Given all the challenges Britain faces, we need practical, hard-headed politicians who can put ideology and ego aside and rebuild Britain. People who act in the national interest, rather than riding their own hobby horses to destruction. Red Ed is the last person you’d want in your team. Andy Burnham has just worked out that Miliband is a menace too, and he’s dead right.

And they still adore him today. Incredibly, he’s the most popular cabinet member among Labour members, and by a country mile. That will only make life harder for Andy Burnham if, as expected, he ousts Sir Keir Starmer in what increasingly looks like a hard-left coup. Burnham is a pragmatist. But he won’t get much done in power if Miliband gets his way.

Miliband doesn’t listen to criticism, and he doesn’t bow to pressure, not from cabinet colleagues and not even his own boss. So he has ploughed on with his net zero transition regardless. Anybody who objects to him destroying the countryside with wind turbines, pylons and solar panels is dismissed as a Nimby and steamrollered. Businesses crushed by soaring energy costs are ignored. So are households as his levies drive up our bills.

Miliband has spent months pushing to make the King of the North PM. He urged Starmer to stand aside and even stopped taking his calls. They were close friends once. Now he’s stabbing the PM in the back, and wants Burnham to stick the knife into Chancellor Rachel Reeves too, and hand him control of the Treasury. Chancellor Ed Miliband would be an absolute disaster. Burnham wants to reindustrialise Britain. Miliband is doing the exact opposite. His net zero crusade will cost the country an absolute fortune, and he’d double down if he got his way. And now Burnham has another worry.

Miliband won’t listen and won’t do what he’s told. Like anyone exposed to too much Marxism too young, he’s convinced he has the answer to everything and is always right. He talks over colleagues who disagree with him. Basically, he’s not an easy man to work with. Burnham is a genial chap and can see what’s coming. He’ll be steamrollered too. So he’s sounding out alternatives for chancellor.

But it’s not that easy. Miliband is popular in the party and desperate to be an even bigger noise in the new regime. He may have stopped answering the phone to Starmer but he’s never off the blower to Burnham’s team, who have had enough. Standing up to Miliband won’t be easy though. He won’t just storm off in a huff. He’ll start plotting. That’s what he does. And he’ll create a new power base, eager to pounce on the slightest slip by Burnham. Our potential new PM has a tough decision to make, but he’d better make it. Otherwise his premiership will be sunk before it’s even begun.