I’ll be fine, David Miliband tells Labour
By Alex Stevenson
Defeated leadership candidate David Miliband has told the Labour party to stop worrying about his future – without revealing his intentions.
In his first comments to the Labour autumn conference in Manchester, before beginning a speech on foreign policy, he confronted speculation about whether he will agree to continue serving under his younger brother Ed Miliband.
“I want to say first of all I’ve been incredibly honoured and humbled by the support you’ve given me, but we have a great new leader and we all have to get behind him,” he said, after receiving a standing ovation from party delegates.
“I’m really really really proud. I’m so proud of my campaign, I’m so proud of my party, but above all I’m incredibly proud of my brother.”
He described Ed Miliband as a “special person” to him and a “special person” to the party. “Our job is to make him a special person for all the British people,” he continued.
David Miliband has until Wednesday to decide whether he wants to stand in elections for the shadow Cabinet, as he agonises over whether to continue in frontline politics.
“You don’t do anything like that in politics or in life unless you’re 100% committed to winning,” he continued.
“But I’ve also learned something else in life – you never go in for something, especially something so important, unless you’re sure in yourself you’re reconciled to the prospect you might lose. That’s life.
“So to those of you who’ve been coming up to me in the last few days – don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
The shadow foreign secretary, tipped for many years to be Labour’s next leader but beaten by his younger brother by a margin of just 1.3% on Saturday, sought to demonstrate his mood with two jokes.
“As it happens on my computer in a couple of files marked ‘Saturday version seven’, ‘Tuesday version 23’, it just so happens I’ve got a couple of speeches to draw on for this morning. But don’t worry too much,” he began.
Before moving on to address the war in Afghanistan and other foreign policy issues he recalled a man who approached him after a union reception.
“He said, ‘Ed, congratulations on your victory’. I can do without that.”
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