
His interview later today with BBC Radio Two's Jeremy Vine may settle this question if he explicitly denies planning to challenge Brown – which apparently Downing Street is demanding he do. If he doesn’t, then chances are he almost certainly plans to, and it will be all out civil war in the Labour Party.
Back when Tony Blair first stepped down in 2007, there was suggestion that there should be a contest for the Labour leadership and Miliband was always one of the first names suggested. But in the end there wasn’t one, and Gordon Brown – who had been Tony’s right hand man as Chancellor of the Exchequer (head of UK finances) during the Blair years – replaced Blair uncontested. Now that Brown has had such a bad run of things, and following the disastrous result in the Glasgow East byelection – Labour is in full panic mode and looking for a solution. Miliband now appears ready to challenge Brown and make a bid for the leadership.