Blog: Word is that David offered Ed the planned new leader’s speech he never got to make in case Miliband Minor could use part of it, and that Ed’s people politely turned it down.

So, hours into his new role, Labour leader Ed had already got ‘people’ dealing with these matters?

The other interesting thing is that The Famous Five (or at least one of them) might have even had the big speech ready well before the result of the vote. There’s confidence.

And surely we heard every one of the five candidates cheerfully say during the campaign that they would back and serve under whoever won this long, lonely leadership election. So what happened? Pretty obvious isn’t it. Reality can bite you on the bum.

By yesterday, Ed was already getting predictably tedious by prefacing every comment by saying how gracious and loving David had been in defeat. He also ‘graciously’ announced that his door is always open for his brother to serve again in any future Cabinet, shadow or real.

Hang on. A desperately disappointed David Multiband has now walked away from frontline politics because come the crunch, he couldn’t stomach taking a job as one of Ed’s shadows.

So how can the new leader so sweepingly write such an open cheque? How can he possibly promise a top job at any time of David’s future choosing? He can’t, of course, and far from being just a very generous gesture, there is a breathtaking arrogance that within a few days, Ed Miliband is talking about ‘my door’ and making such blatantly fraternal promises.

Especially since he joined a campaign in which he was determined to beat the more experienced brother who was widely expected to win.

Don’t be too fooled by the constant declarations of sibling love. This was the same as it always is – pure and ruthless politics.

By Shirley Tart