David Miliband could be positioning to take over from Gordon Brown

Last Modified: 30 Jul 2008
By: Gary Gibbon, Cathy Newman

David Miliband has revealed he may be positioning himself to take over from Gordon Brown as prime minister.

With the prime minister on holiday, his foreign secretary has written a newspaper article setting out what Labour must do to win the next election.

The article has been interpreted by some as a bid for the leadership, and Miliband has refused to rule himself out of a future contest.

He stepped back from the brink a year ago when he was being touted as a possible successor to Tony Blair, but the son of a Marxist and ardent Blairite has assumed the mantle of the Labour minister most likely to take over from Gordon Brown.

When Tony Blair stood down, Miliband allowed Brown a free run in the contest that never was to become Labour's leader and was rewarded with the foreign secretary's job.

A leader in waiting?

He's the son of a Marxist, but a protege of Tony Blair.

Last year David Miliband backed off challenging Gordon Brown but with his intervention today he's shown he's up for the mantle of "man most likely to take over"

So what do we know about this Arsenal supporting policy wonk? And what do voters make of him? Away from the Westminster hothouse, our political correspondent Cathy Newman has been finding out what the sunseekers on the beach think.