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Milburn: I'd be mad to take a job from Gordon
Joe Murphy and Nicholas Cecil6 Aug 2008
Alan Milburn would refuse a Cabinet job if it is offered by Gordon Brown, the Evening Standard has learned.
The former health secretary and arch-Blairite has told friends he would be "mad" to accept a post in the reshuffle expected early next month.
There have been repeated reports that the Prime Minister is planning to offer a senior position to Mr Milburn, who is seen as Labour's leading moderniser, in a bid to unify the party.
Such a move would be seen as an olive branch to modernisers like Mr Milburn who feel that Mr Brown has failed to give Labour a radical enough direction. However, it would also bind a potential critic into the Brown government and prevent him from speaking out.
Mr Milburn did not deny that he was against a Cabinet return when contacted today. He said: "I'm not going into all this, I'm really not."
Recently, Mr Brown has made overtures. Last month, the Standard revealed that the PM called Mr Milburn to seek his advice before making a speech on social mobility. The pair are understood to have had several friendly conversations but Downing Street insiders deny that Mr Brown is preparing to offer a Cabinet post.
A report today claiming that David Miliband had offered to make Mr Milburn his Chancellor if he took over the leadership was dismissed as " fiction" by both Mr Milburn and the Foreign Secretary.
The Daily Telegraph claimed on its front page that they had discussed forming a post-Brown Cabinet.
A spokesman for Mr Miliband called it a "complete work of fiction". And Mr Milburn said: "I told the paper yesterday it was complete b******* and I am amazed they have run it."
With plotting fever swirling at Westminster, some MPs will see the suggestion-that Mr Milburn could become Chancellor as a smear to undermine support for Mr Miliband, who is on holiday in Menorca.
Dangling the possibility of him returning to the heart of government could galvanise support against Mr Miliband.
Former Treasury minister Geoffrey Robinson, a leading Brownite, said the claim could damage Mr Miliband. "It's a thought - I'm not sure it's a very good thought, and I'm not sure it'll do David Miliband much good."
The Foreign Secretary insisted that he had spoken to Mr Milburn about jobs in a post-Brown administration.
The Telegraph claimed Mr Milburn had told the Foreign Secretary that he would be happy to return to the Treasury. But Mr Miliband's spokeswoman strongly denied the story, saying: "This is a complete work of fiction. There is no leadership challenge."
A poll of polls for The Independent today put Labour at its most unpopular since 1935, with the backing of just 27 per cent of voters, compared with 44 per cent for the Conservatives and 18 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.
Such a result at a general election would give the Tories a landslide victory with 391 seats, compared to 195 for Labour and 33 for the Lib-Dems.
Reader views (1)
Oh glee. Labour at each others throat. Let the blood letting start. They're all in denial of each others accusation.
What chance of running the country when they have nothing better to do then feather their own nests in the hope clinging to power for a little longer. Don't suspect the Tories will be anymore honest, but things simply can't be any worse.
These lying robbing jobsworth have destroyed what was once tolerable. It has come to nothing more then a nanny state.
- Asw, Hong Kong, 06/08/2008 13:26
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