Inside Ed Miliband’s search for redemption

Trump may not be a fan, but Miliband has “a formidable network of politicians, both in the U.K. and abroad,” noted the first former official. (In February he secured a meeting in London to talk clean energy with California governor and Democrat presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom.)  

“He would make a formidable foreign secretary,” said a senior diplomat from a G20 country — a promotion which would allow Burnham to give Miliband more prominence but not the full power and heft of the Treasury. 

“You could say [Miliband is] a very good export product,” the senior diplomat continued. “The perception of him outside the U.K. is very positive. He [is] very cosmopolitan, very cultivated. He treats countries with respect as equals, including less developed countries. He is post-imperial — a very modern politician with a sense of intergenerational responsibility.”  

As foreign secretary or as chancellor, that could be significant next year, the diplomat noted, as the U.K. hosts G20 meetings, including a meeting of finance ministers to help shape a global response to the Iran energy shock and sclerotic global growth.  

A trip to China to talk up clean energy investments last March does not harm his case, either, some argue. Miliband had “built some relationships” with counterparts at the global superpower, said Yixian Sun, a professor of sustainability governance at the University of Bath who recently advised the government on its engagement with China. His “commitment to strengthening cooperation between the two countries” would “definitely help the U.K.” if he had a bigger job, Sun added. 

But ultimately, a third senior government official said, whoever ends up in the top jobs would be bound by the same political and economic gravity as his recent predecessors, none of whom have found a way to solve Britain’s basic conundrum: How to deliver sustained growth while balancing the books.