𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Ed Miliband said today he has no plans to become Labour leader. The Environment Secretary, who led the party once before, told the BBC: “I’ve got the T-shirt, that chapter’s closed.” But Labour MPs don’t believe it. Many are convinced that Mr Miliband will be the big winner if Sir Keir Starmer is forced to stand down. In fact, “red Ed” could be back as Labour leader – and the next Prime Minister.

There’s a lot of anger with Sir Keir. His Labour colleagues are furious at the way his team treated Health Secretary Wes Streeting this week, and believe it’s part of a pattern that saw Downing Street “bully” other Cabinet colleagues in the past, including Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. One MP said: “This isn’t sustainable. But what can we do?”

Well, under Labour Party rules it is possible for Sir Keir’s MPs to force a leadership election that could see him removed from office. The chances of that happening are slim, but growing.

And it’s widely assumed that Mr Streeting would be a candidate.

However, even if Labour MPs are sympathetic to Mr Streeting today, that doesn’t mean they want him as leader.

He would be seen as a candidate from the right of the party (so would Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, another contender).

The soft left of the Labour Party would seek a candidate of their own. And that’s where Ed Miliband comes in.

There are enough Labour MPs on the left to make sure one of their candidates gets the nominations needed to stand in an election, but they don’t have an obvious contender.

Angela Rayner can’t stand for the leader just after admitting that her stamp duty error makes her unfit to be deputy leader.

Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh can’t do it. She has a conviction for fraud.

There’s Lucy Powell, the new Deputy Leader, but colleagues aren’t certain she’s up to the job.

And that leaves Ed Miliband – someone who failed as leader in opposition, between 2010 and 2015, but has now matured. He’s got experience of leading a party, experience in the Cabinet as Environment Secretary, he’s not the sort of person to have skeletons in his closet and he’s just left-wing enough.

He’d be the obvious candidate for centre-left Labour MPs – many of whom are determined to stop Wes Streeting getting the job.

And we know what Labour activists think. In the recent deputy leader election, they rejected Bridget Phillipson, regarded as the candidate of the party right, and overwhelmingly chose Ms Powell, the centre-left option.

If asked to pick a new leader today, they’re likely to vote along similar lines – choosing the centre-left candidate. And that’s why Ed Miliband could be the next Labour leader, and walk straight in to Number 10 as Prime Minister.