Gordon and I are BOTH at the helm, claims David Miliband

In an article for The Mail on Sunday on the mounting international crisis involving Russia and Georgia, Foreign Secretary Mr Miliband says he and the Prime Minister are jointly deciding Britain’s response - including the decision to condemn the scale of Moscow’s invasion of its tiny neighbour.

‘The immediate instinct of the Prime Minister and I was clear: to speak out against aggression, to call for respect for human rights and international law and to rally international opinion behind these principles,’ says Mr Miliband in one of several references pointedly mentioning himself and Mr Brown in the same breath.

Joint leaders? Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Defending his decision to condemn the scale of the Russian military reaction against Georgia, he says: ‘The British people want a Government that stands up for what it believes in and speaks out for the victims of aggression or injustice... That’s what Gordon Brown and I will keep doing.’

Highlighting the widespread international condemnation of Russia, he adds: ‘Tomorrow, Gordon Brown and I will attend an emergency EU summit to discuss the crisis.’

The repeated joint references strike a sharp contrast with Mr Miliband’s newspaper article last month calling for a new vision for the Labour Party, which failed to mention the Prime Minister once.

However, since then Mr Miliband has maintained a high profile and given no signals that he intends to drop his ambitions to succeed Mr Brown as Labour leader.

Sitting partners: David Miliband made many 'Gordon Brown and I' statements in his interview for the Mail on Sunday

Senior party sources say the Foreign Secretary has answered threats of being moved to another job in a Cabinet reshuffle by telling the Prime Minister he would not accept any demotion.

In his article today, Mr Miliband says: ‘No one wants a new Cold War.’

But he steps up his war of words with Moscow by coming close to accusing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of lying over the crisis.

Warning that Russia is now isolated, he writes: ‘It is on its own politically, it has undermined itself economically and it has cast doubt on the value of the word of its president.’