Miliband denies ministerial involvement in attempt to oust Brown
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband today rejected claims that senior ministers gave their tacit approval to last week’s failed plot to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Miliband, who is seen by many as a potential successor to Brown, waited nearly seven hours to issue a response to the botched coup but dismissed suggestions he had delayed in supporting Brown.
In his first interview since former Cabinet colleagues Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt issued a round robin letter calling for a secret ballot on Mr Brown’s leadership, he insisted no ministers had endorsed the attempted putsch.
He told The Times: “No one in the government was involved in this letter last week.
“The unanimous view is that we’ve got to focus on providing a clear alternative to the Tories.”
Asked whether he would ever run for the party leadership, he replied: “I don’t spend time talking about myself. I spend time talking about the Government, and the party, and the country.”
Quizzed on whether he may be too cerebral for the Machiavellian world of politics, Mr Miliband said: “I’m not going to plead not guilty to the charge of thinking.
“I think it’s quite important to think. In fact, I think that thinking is probably underestimated as a virtue in politics.”
