Why did David turn down Brown?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

The excellent Paul Waugh reports an interesting, and new, bit of information from the Mandelson book. According to Mandelson, Gordon Brown approached David Miliband before the 2007 leadership election and asked him to run his campaign – as a prelude to becoming a number two in a Brown administration.

“Gordon did not want a contest at all, especially one against David. In early March he had tried to kill him with kindness, asking David to manage his campaign, with the prospect of becoming his right-hand man in a Brown government”

“The wooing went on for weeks, but David, politely but unequivocally, said no: at the end of the month Jack Straw eagerly accepted the call instead.”

If David wasn’t going to run himself, and felt certain that Brown was going to win, why didn’t he take the opportunity to run the Brown campaign? Wasn’t it worth the advantages that could bring him post-leadership election? Or was Miliband wary of Brown? He certainly believed he was going to win, saying to the BBC only today that:

“I wasn’t ready to be Prime Minister. I think it would have been better for Gordon if he’d had a contest, but I wasn’t going to run as a sort of opposition to the harlem globetrotters, where everyone knows what the result is going to be and infact you’re playing or running but asking people not to vote for you.”

David Miliband didn’t believe he was ready to be PM in 2009, so presumably didn’t in 2007. He believed that Gordon Brown would win the leadership election, but turned down the chance to be on his campaign. Did David Miliband believe that Gordon would be a good PM? And if not – who does he believe should have stood instead, if not himself?