David Miliband could make comeback under Burnham cabinet, Labour insiders suggest

David Miliband could be the surprise appointment in a future Andy Burnham cabinet, amid suggestions the former foreign secretary could return to frontline politics after more than a decade away. The elder Miliband, who has run the New York-based International Rescue Committee since quitting Parliament in 2013, has become the subject of fresh speculation in Westminster, where talk has turned to whether he could be lured back to the Foreign Office. A Labour insider backing Burnham called it “a no brainer”. Miliband’s younger brother Ed is Energy Secretary. There were murmurs that Miliband was interested in returning to the House of Commons around the last general election when he repeatedly declined to rule out a comeback. The speculation comes as Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, prepares for a crunch by-election on Thursday that could shake up UK politics. Burnham, a politician who clearly discomfits political journalists by enjoying being a political leader, has faced criticism as a “people pleaser”. But he has defended sticking by campaigners, saying: “So I stick by campaigners that I support. I stuck by the Hillsborough families, I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.” The possibility of a Burnham leadership comes after Keir Starmer’s government has struggled with a message of pessimism, with the Prime Minister saying things “were worse than we ever imagined” and warning of “painful” budgets. Optimism propels progressive governments, the New Statesman argued, and without it the Starmer government was doomed. Whether Burnham can offer that optimism – and whether he would bring back David Miliband – remains to be seen.