Ed Miliband has been Andy Burnham’s most powerful and most useful friend in Westminster for months. Now, as Burnham prepares to enter Downing Street on Monday, what to do with the energy secretary might be his biggest dilemma.
More than a decade after Miliband suffered a bruising defeat at the 2015 general election, he has emerged as a kingmaker in Burnham’s rush to power — and is now looking to trade up from his current role. Miliband has been speaking to Burnham behind the scenes since early 2026, according to two people familiar with their relationship, and publicly called for Burnham’s return to Westminster as early as January. In April he was, according to reports never denied by his team, the first Cabinet minister privately to urge Prime Minister Keir Starmer to lay out a timetable for departure.
“Ed Miliband and brother David jostle for top jobs as Burnham prepares to enter Downing Street.”
“He has been the godfather of Andy’s return,” says John McTernan, a Miliband backer and former adviser to Tony Blair.
Yet few British politicians split opinion like Miliband, and his bid to be named chancellor inspired widespread pushback. For some right-leaning newspapers, he is the bogeyman of left-wing politics. His net zero project and a ban on new oil and gas exploration licenses in the North Sea have annoyed some unions. The Trump administration, full of enthusiastic backers for more fossil fuel drilling, reportedly warned against him becoming chancellor. (The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Now — though people close to Burnham insist no final decision has been “communicated” — it is Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood who looks set to be named chancellor, leaving open the question of where Miliband will fit in Burnham’s new order. The options include replacing Yvette Cooper as foreign secretary, according to some reports. If so, he already has some fans. Miliband would be “formidable” on the global stage if handed the role, one senior diplomat from a G20 country told POLITICO.
Meanwhile, another Miliband is also on manoeuvres. David Miliband, now 60, has spent more than a decade in the United States running a refugee charity, the International Rescue Committee (IRC). But he is preparing to return to frontline politics. Reports suggest Burnham is lining him up for a return as foreign secretary — an appointment that would free the incoming prime minister to focus on domestic issues.
Last week, the veteran New Labour figure gave a speech at the London School of Economics titled “Kings, Priests and Prophets: Power and its Missing Guardrails”, in which he revealed himself as a Burnham fanboy. He backed the former Manchester mayor’s devolution agenda, claiming this “big change” was “long overdue”, and argued that centralisation of power in London had inflamed Britain’s dissatisfaction with democracy.
Yet critics point to his tenure at the IRC, which saw him rapidly expand the charity only to drastically scale it back again, with spiralling deficits as several major donor nations slashed aid spending. There were staff cuts. “There is a clear path through this period,” Miliband told IRC staff in a letter last year, as he announced job losses. “I am just so sorry at the price to be paid to get there.” Insiders told UnHerd that the charity’s bosses used the donor cuts to cover up their own ineptitude, passing documents showing the IRC faced a $50 million deficit due to fund-raising shortfalls, accounting mistakes and cost overruns, despite one bequest of $16.5 million.
For some, David Miliband symbolises the arrogance and sense of entitlement of the political class. But with Burnham facing a crowded field for his Cabinet, the question remains: will either — or both — of the Miliband brothers find a place in his new order?