Miliband sounded me out for Shadow Cabinet role this year, reveals Alan Johnson

Ed Miliband approached Alan Johnson about a possible return to the Labour frontbench earlier this year, the former Home Secretary has revealed. In an interview with Alastair Campbell in GQ Magazine, Johnson says the Labour leader had made a tentative approach, but he wasn’t interested.

However, Miliband certainly seemed keen to get Johnson visible in the election campaign, and that appears to be a responsibility he is more amenable to:

“Ed said to me a few months ago, “I suppose you’re not interested in coming back?” I said no, and he said, what about freelancing?” I am happy to go round the country, campaigning, talking to parties.

Johnson has been away from the frontbench since resigning as Shadow Chancellor in January 2011, a job he admits he did not enjoy:

“I was glad to get out. I took it because I thought, what an extraordinary gesture, that he wants me there. I was not associated with [Miliband], I’m very much a Blairite, I had not been planning to go on the frontbench. But my heart wasn’t in it.”

Could we see a post-2015 return? There is certainly support for it: Mary Creagh, Tom Watson, Len McCluskey and John Prescott have all said they’d like to see Johnson back in the fold, and the man himself says he would be tempted by a ministerial position if Labour win the election. In typical straight-talking fashion, he observes it might not be the most popular career move if he were to wait out first. When Campbell asks if he would take a frontbench role in the event of a Labour majority, Johnson replies:

“Disgracefully – and it is disgraceful because I won’t have done the heavy lifting – then I would be more interested. But I am not gagging for it. But I am clear that I cannot write and do a front bench job.”

Johnson, who recently made a short video laying out his support for the EU, praises Miliband for refusing to promise an in/out referendum, and says that his only frustration with Labour is the failure hold George Osborne to account over his failures on the economy.