David Miliband won’t run for Labour Party leader in UK

LONDON — David Miliband has criticized his brother Ed Miliband’s failed campaign to become Britain’s prime minister, but says he won’t run for Labour Party leader now that his younger brother has stepped down.

David Miliband told the BBC in New York Monday that voters “didn’t want what was being offered” by Labour when they gave a majority victory to Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives. The result, he said, was “devastating” for the progressive cause.

David said that his brother Ed, like former Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the 2010 election, allowed himself to be portrayed as “moving backwards from the principles of aspiration and inclusion.”

Ed defeated David in a battle for the party leadership in 2010. David, a former foreign secretary, later resigned from Parliament to head the International Rescue Committee in New York, and says he remains committed to that job.

David said he had been in touch with Ed since the election, and praised him for showing “enormous dignity and courage” in the face of bruising attacks during the campaign, which saw the Labour Party’s support in Scotland crumble in the face of nationalist gains.

Labour party leader Ed Miliband (C) and his wife Justine Thornton arrive at Labour party headquarters in London on May 8, 2015, the day after a general election. (AFP Photo/Justin Tallis)