‘I can best support Ed from the backbenches’ says David Miliband about his younger brother, who beat him by a single percentage point to become leader of the Labour party.
Of course, what he really means is if he were to accept a senior position in the shadow cabinet , he will permanently be under the spotlight of a media looking for signs of a fallout caused by the known idealogical differences between the two brothers. He would effectively be gagged.
However, sitting in the shadows as a backbencher , he will be free to influence, choreograph and covertly direct other colleagues who might not be happy with Labour’s ‘new direction’ thereby destabilising the new leadership. Eventually, he will be able to step back into the limelight when the hoped for call is made for a successor to brother Ed.
Seems like a cynical view? In the murky world of politics, water is nearly always thicker than blood!
