𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Every day, it becomes clearer that British voters made a wise decision in rejecting Ed Miliband’s bid to become PM in 2015. The former Labour leader would have been a complete disaster, as he’s demonstrated over the last two crazy years. Labour activists love him for his radicalism, and thrill to see him waving his arms around at environmental conferences. But he should be hanging out with pink-haired eco-activists or throwing soup on historic paintings, not in high office, with responsibility for spending Government budgets running into tens of billions.

I’ll admit it, Miliband has one advantage over every other Labour Cabinet member. He came to power with a mission and had the political muscle to push on despite the growing army of opposition. But he’s completely out of control. He’s doing mad things like paying wind farm operators to create electricity we can’t use, plastering fertile farmland with solar panels, and banning new North Sea drilling. He thinks it’s immoral to exploit domestic oil and gas reserves, but is happy to buy jet fuel and diesel from Vladimir Putin. What kind of mission is that?

There’s another problem. Miliband is so convinced he’s right, he won’t listen to anyone. Even his own boss. Last year, Starmer tried to sack him as energy secretary, but Miliband refused to budge. Chancellor Rachel Reeves attacked his North Sea ban, but he stuck his fingers in his ears. And he won’t listen to industry experts like EDF Energy, who are urging him to pause wind and solar expansion because our grid can’t cope with the energy. But now he’s gone too far even by his turbulent standards.

Starmer couldn’t get rid of Miliband. But now Miliband reckons he can get rid of Starmer. Ed is a big chum of leadership challenger Andy Burnham, who’s expected to win tomorrow’s Makerfield by-election, then launch an instant coup against the PM. And treacherous Miliband is doing everything in his power to help, even though he’s a member of Starmer’s Cabinet. He’s already urged Starmer to set down a timetable for the transition of power. Apparently, the PM wasn’t too happy about that. Now Miliband has gone further.

Incredibly, he’s been refusing to talk to Starmer, or as they say on social media, he’s “ghosting” him. That’s staggering. Lots of people are reluctant to take calls from their boss, but usually they pick up the phone or answer that WhatsApp message. But Miliband is lying low. Starmer is said to be furious.

Red Ed likes to get his own way. And as his own brother David can testify, he will use every political trick to get it. His greatest strength is his popularity within the party. So when Starmer tried to trim Miliband’s net zero splurge to top up the defence budget, he refused. Starmer was even bracing himself for Miliband to resign in protest. He was worrying about the wrong man, and was astonished when defence secretary John Healey quit instead.

Last year, Starmer couldn’t sack his energy secretary for love nor money. Now he’s terrified he’ll quit, and trigger yet another Cabinet crisis. That’s how it is in the mixed-up, crazy world of today’s dysfunctional Labour Party. If Starmer is to retain any authority, he has to show Ed Miliband who’s boss. But he won’t. Because deep down, the PM knows the truth. It’s not him. It’s Ed.