Ed Miliband has been tipped to make a return to the front bench as the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The former Labour leader would replace John McDonnell in the position in move that has been described as a masterstroke by certain Tory MPs.
Stephen Bush of the New Statesman reported that many of Keir Starmer’s inner circle are admirers of the Doncaster North MP.
He said opposition MPs “aren’t laughing” at the idea of him returning to the front bench with Starmer as leader.
Several older Conservative MPs highlighted that throughout his time in opposition, David Cameron’s shadow foreign secretary was William Hague, a man who led the Conservative party to their second-worst defeat in history.
The comparatives would be stark.
Momentum chief
Starmer received a significant boost to his campaign today after a former Momentum chief and aide to Jeremy Corbyn backed him in the Labour leadership race.
Laura Parker, who worked as national coordinator of the grassroots group until December and private secretary to the outgoing Labour leader, has thrown her support behind Sir Keir, praising him for having “placed unifying the party at the heart of his mission and made an unequivocal commitment to preserving our core policies”.
She wrote in a blog for the LabourList website: “With a drive to unify our party around a radical programme, the experience to oversee the rebuilding and management of our complex party machine and the skills and determination to take on the Tories, Keir Starmer can become a great party leader.
“If we – over half a million members – accept and rise to the challenge of supporting him in this endeavour, then we will become more than the sum of our individual parts and also a great party.”
Ms Parker added Sir Keir had committed to “preserving our core policies” that when polled individually “have significant support from the public”.
Related: Labour’s John McDonnell says Julian Assange should not be extradited to US
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .