(Bloomberg) -- Former U.K. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband made a surprise political comeback on Monday, joining Keir Starmer's top team as business spokesman for the opposition party.
Miliband, who carved out a niche as a popular podcast host and effective backbencher after he quit as leader following Labour's defeat in the 2015 general election, will also cover energy policy, a brief he held in Gordon Brown's government between 2008 and 2010.
Famous for narrowly beating his brother David to win the party leadership in 2010, Miliband joins politicians including ex-Tory leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith in returning to a front-line role after holding the top job, still a relatively rare feat in British politics.
Former prime ministers David Cameron, Tony Blair and Brown all chose to step down from Parliament rather than emulate Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath, who remained as an irritant to Margaret Thatcher when she succeeded him as party leader.
While Miliband did call for his successor Jeremy Corbyn to stand aside in 2016, he said he had been wrong to do so after Labour's surprisingly strong showing in the following year's general election.
Starmer Names Top Team and Warns Against U.K. Austerity Re-Run
Miliband, who as energy secretary drove through the Climate Change Act, which set binding emissions reduction targets for the first time in domestic law, said his first focus in his new role will be addressing the coronavirus crisis.
“We will need to reshape our economy, addressing the insecurity many millions of workers face,” Miliband said in a statement on Twitter. “We must also return to climate change as the unavoidable long-term issue of our time.”
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