Ed Miliband: The Once and Future Leader?

Current Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is seen by many on the left and right of the Labour Party as a good replacement for the Leader of the party and denizen of No 10 should Sir Keir fall on his sword. Ed Miliband served as Labour leader from 2010 to 2015 after Gordon Brown was defeated in a general election. Known as "Red Ed", shifting Labour more to the left. Ed Miliband, who is of a Jewish background (and Polish), though not a practising Jew, unveiled the famous "Ed Stone" with commitments he was committed to engraved on a giant stone not unlike the ones you see at Stonehenge. Also, compared to the Ten Commandments, which Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, hence the ironic Jewish mention.

So why would Sir Keir Starmer fall on his sword? The Mandelson Affair is causing a lot of trouble for the current Prime Minister. Ed Miliband, while not showing overt ambition to replace the prime minister, has been critical of the vetting procedure or lack of one, that made Peter Mandelson US Ambassador. Mandelson had links to Epstein, but how much Sir Keir knew about this or did not know is open to question. Calls have come from fellow Labour MPs, Kemi Badenoch of the Conservatives and others that Sir Keir's position to fight on is untenable.

Then the local elections in May are going to be, if current predictions are correct, a wipeout for Labour. The Conservatives will be no threat to Starmer unless Badenoch has turned things around for the Tories, which seems unlikely. Ed Davey and the Lib Dems always do well in local elections. The greatest threat to Starmer comes from Zack Polanski's Greens and Nigel Farage's Reform UK. The question is, can Sir Keir Starmer carry on with the weight on his shoulders of the Mandelson Affair and a possible disastrous showing in the local elections? Or will he limp on?

Unlike his rivals, Ed Miliband is seen as the right man for the job should Sir Keir go. Other candidates would appear to have impediments that theoretically might stop them from standing in any leadership contest to replace Mr. Starmer. Health Secretary Wes Streeting is thought not to have enough support to stand. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham was told to back off. Angela Rayner is still waiting for the HMRC investigation to conclude. So those are the impediments that might stop them from standing. Also, regarding Andy Burnham, it looks like he is seeing through his time as mayor. And he would need to be elected back to parliament to stand in any contest to replace Sir Keir.

So it would appear the way is clear for Ed to have a clear run at the leadership should Sir Keir go. Ed Miliband is popular in the party and outside of the party with young people. Whether the moniker "Red Ed" will still stick is unknown. Some say that Ed is a changed man when it comes to policy and is more pragmatic.

It is a fact that far-left leaders like Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn have never delivered an electoral victory for Labour. Yes, they have been popular. With Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 general election doing so well that it left Theresa May hanging on a thread. She had to cobble together an alliance with a Northern Irish right-leaning party to stay in power. Corbyn went on to lose the general election in 2019 to Boris Johnson. Many think Johnson won a landslide because he said he would make sure the UK would leave the EU in line with the votes to leave the EU in 2016. If Jeremy Corbyn had been proactive in his views on the EU, might he have won? That is one for speculative historians to debate.

So finally, as of now, with the Mandelson scandal hanging over his head and the real possibility of an awful showing at the local elections, Sir Keir remains as Prime Minister.