Is David Miliband getting ahead of himself? Some Labour MPs are asking the question after a report in PR Week claiming that he is drawing up a team of advisers to help him win the Labour leadership and run Downing Street.
The magazine, which has had a run of scoops about Gordon Brown's appointments at Number 10, tips Jonathan Kestenbaum, chief executive of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, as Miliband's likely chief of staff and that D-J Collins, European communications director at Google, would be his communications chief. Both are friends of the Foreign Secretary but it's not clear whether they would leave their current posts to work for him.
Milibandites tell me the story is "complete rubbish", insisting: "There is no leadership campaign." They say he has his hands full responding to the crisis in Georgia. Further inquiries suggest some of the names listed the Miliband "circle of power" may be wide of the mark--including Tom Watson, an arch-Brownite and Cabinet Office minister. Another one on the list insists he has never met Miliband. Some of his allies suspect black propaganda by Brownites but that seems fanciful. Although the Brown and Miliband camps both dismissed the report and didn't fall out over it, such theories suggest there is still a lot of tension at the top of the Government.
Of course he's angling for power, do these people really think we are that dumb? Take a look at Miliband's CV, it's as empty and as uninteresting as a benefit scrounger's. Miliband is a classic case of ambition outweighing ability and to be seen as a success needs the top job and doesn't give a toss how he gets it just so long as he gets it! He's Blair lite with all the spin and even less charisma
Posted by: flipped | Friday, 29 August 2008 at 08:35 PM
John Rentoul's already on board the Milibandwagon - as Bootlicker-in-Chief.
So Miliband is the little wanchor claiming to be putting it right in Georgia? His credentials as American Viceroy have never glowed so brightly.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Saturday, 30 August 2008 at 05:26 PM