Labour leader Ed Miliband left the door open for his elder brother David to return to the party’s front line yesterday after the former foreign secretary dramatically announced he was quitting the Shadow Cabinet.
David said he was returning to the backbenches in order to avoid becoming a “distraction” to his brother’s effort to provide Labour with a fresh start.
He added it would also allow him to “recharge my political and intellectual batteries” and spend more time with his family.
The widely-expected announcement came four days after he lost out to Ed in the knife-edge ballot for the Labour leadership, and was hailed by his brother as a “thoughtful and gracious” move.
Speaking at the Labour conference in Manchester, Ed Miliband said: “He is my brother and I am very clear that, as leader of this party, my door is always open for him to serve in the future, either in opposition or back in government.”
David - who spent the day with his family at his north London home - said he would remain MP for South Shields and would devote himself to developing the network of community organisers he set up as part of his leadership campaign.
In a letter to the chairman of his constituency party, he said he was confident that stepping back from the frontline was “the right decision for Ed, for the party and for me and the family”.
He made clear he was not ruling out an eventual return to the front bench but refused to be drawn on whether his brother had privately urged him to stay.
Ed described him as “a massive talent” and added: “We would have been a stronger team with him in it, but I think he is right to have made the decision he did.”
David’s departure from Labour’s top team came as the deadline passed for nominations to the Shadow Cabinet.
Some 49 Labour MPs - ranging from big beasts like Alan Johnson, Ed Balls and Peter Hain to relatively unknown backbenchers – are standing for 19 elected positions in a ballot of MPs which concludes on October 7.
In a sign of the new leader taking control of his party, Rosie Winterton was elected unopposed as opposition chief whip after Ed Miliband asked incumbent Nick Brown – a close ally of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown – not to stand.
Allies of David Miliband praised his decision to quit the front benches.
Mr Johnson said it would make it easier for Ed to “flourish as leader” by avoiding “constant scrutiny of their relationship”.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott said the party owed David “an enormous debt of gratitude”.
And fellow-Blairite Tessa Jowell said David had “done the right thing for himself, and for his family, and he has definitely done the right thing for the party”.