Nick Brown on Miliband – “he didn’t want me”

Ed Miliband surprised many in the party when his first major act as leader was to ask the then chief whip Nick Brown not to stand again for the role. The meeting in Manchester back in 2010 has been discussed widely in Labour circles, but has rarely been talked about openly by any of the protagonists. Yet now it seems that Nick Brown has spoken publically about it. The Newcastle Journal (reporting on Brown’s World at One interview), quotes him as saying:

“What actually happened is that Ed asked to see me, said he didn’t want me.”

“I wanted to be chief whip for a bit longer and he said if you want another middle ranking shadow post, but it was my decision to step back. I would have liked to carry on, but he didn’t want me to.”