Ed Miliband became leader of the Labour Party in 2010 after the resignation of Gordon Brown and a successful leadership contest. Although receiving support from notable members of the party including Neil Kinnock and Tony Benn, Mr Miliband remained largely unpopular among the population.

His leadership spanned five years and culminated in the 2015 election.

Here, Mr Miliband campaigned to secure the UK’s place in the EU, after the Conservative’s David Cameron promised to call a Brexit referendum by 2017.

Mr Cameron won, and Mr Miliband has since taken a back seat in politics, remaining an MP but less vocal in the Houses of Commons.

In a 2018 GQ interview with former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell – who incidentally helped Mr Miliband’s campaign in the 2015 election – asked him how he felt in the aftermath of the election defeat.

Mr Miliband said: “I think the truth is I felt a sense of shock.

“You’re slightly in shock.

“You know it’s happened but you’re still trying to work out what it means.

“You feel the burden of leadership has been lifted.

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“I was thinking, I’ve got my family, Justine and the kids.

“So, I knew there was compensation.

“It was pretty hard.

“You move on I think, I’ve moved on.

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“But, it took sort of really a year.

“I think the 2017 general election was an inflection point, a sort of moment of moving on.”

With the Labour leadership victory of Sir Keir Starmer earlier this month, Mr Miliband has been catapulted back to the front bench.

He is now shadow business secretary and will play a pivotal role in Labour’s rebrand following Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 election defeat.

While many have praised Sir Keir’s victory, others have taken aim, branding him as “continuity Miliband”.

Labour MP Wes Streeting said Sir Keir would have been acutely aware of the comparisons when putting together his shadow cabinet.

Other lesser-known names brought in to the Labour front bench include Anneliese Dodds, the new shadow chancellor, and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the new shadow home secretary.

During a HuffPost podcast, Mr Streeting said: “One of the advantages of Ed is that he does have a media cut-through as well.

“So as well as bringing through fresh faces, you’ve got someone who can cut straight through and talk to people.

“When you think about other successful politicians in the past like William Hague, he had a very, very successful frontline political career and reinvention when he came back.

“I think we’ll see the same with Ed, actually.”

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