Labour grandee David Miliband has hinted at a return to national politics nearly ten years after leaving for the United States, while urging the UK to repair its relations with the EU.
“That’s not been decided yet. That’s not done,” Miliband responded in an LBC radio interview on Tuesday to the suggestion that he planned to return. He added that he was “enthusiastic” about Keir Starmer’s leadership of Labour.
A protégé of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Miliband served as foreign minister in the last Labour government, turning down the chance to become the first EU High Representative of foreign policy and quit domestic politics shortly after being narrowly defeated by his brother, Ed Miliband, in the 2010 Labour leadership election.
However, the prospects of Labour turning its 20-25% poll lead over an increasingly unpopular Conservative party into an election victory has prompted renewed speculation that Miliband, who moved to New York in 2013 to his current position as chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, could soon return to UK politics where he retains allies among the centre-right of the Labour party.
In a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London, Miliband stated that “our EU relationship is vital geopolitically as well as to our domestic economic repair job”.
He also pointed to foreign policy, energy, security and defence and migration as areas where the UK should have close ties to the EU.
“Brexit is a fact. But it did not need to be as bad as this. And foreign policy offers a prime area where we must forge a common ground with the EU. We should be all-in on European political cooperation and the same on energy security,” he said.
(Benjamin Fox | Euractiv.com)
Source: euractiv.com
