This is Miliband’s moment, and he should run as the ‘we screwed up’ challenger

It may be time to stop talking about whether David Miliband challenges Gordon Brown, and start talking about when. The young cabinet minister plainly contemplates the possibility — or why would he have been so conspicuously keeping his options open since speculation began? — and nothing has happened that makes a Miliband bid look less auspicious than it did at the outset. Indeed the Chancellor’s star is falling. If Mr Miliband doesn’t go for it now he’s a wimp — a no-show who, after a braver soul like John Hutton had gone to his political death in a doomed but heroic challenge to Mr Brown, and after Brown had lost the next general election, would find that the spotlight had moved away from the ones who didn’t dare. The Labour party would then be in a state of internal strife and looking for a unifying figure. My guess is that in the event that Brown did not stay on as leader, someone like Hilary Benn would be the choice.

So this is Miliband’s moment, and there’s a good chance he will seize it. Let’s assume he does so, in a few weeks’ time, after the May elections. How should his campaign for the leadership be conducted? I dare say he needs no advice from me, and some of what follows will be obvious to him; but it may not be obvious to the advance-guard of his supporters. For the advice is that he should spurn them.

On no account should David Miliband allow himself to be presented as the heir to Blair. He should run as the ‘we screwed up’ challenger. He should make clear that if more of the same is what Labour wants, then Brown’s their man.