David Miliband has said he would take part in any campaign to vote against the terms of any Brexit deal but has no plans to return to the cut and thrust of UK politics.
Miliband, who has been based in New York as president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) since 2013, is still seen as a future leader of the Labour party and has never categorically ruled it out.
He was asked at the Hay literary festival in Wales whether, if there was ever a public vote on the terms of a Brexit deal, he would be part of a campaign to reject it. “Of course,” he said. “I tried to campaign last time, I hope I’d campaign more effectively next time.”
Miliband, the former foreign secretary, said it was important to him to be in a job where he could make the most impact.
“I am privileged to be someone who was in politics, who had the extraordinary privilege of representing the country, who is now running a $750m [£560m] organisation which helped 27 million people last year. I am passionate about the job I do but I am also able to say, ‘Look, in a personal capacity, I can talk about these issues [of Brexit].’”
The 17,000 people working for the IRC also needed to know, he said, that he was focused “on doing my job today for them”.
Miliband argues there should be a second vote on Brexit, partly on the grounds that what people voted for is not going to happen.
He said the first referendum should not have taken place and reminded the Hay audience that it was Margaret Thatcher, quoting Clement Attlee, who said a referendum was a device used by “dictators and demagogues”.
The remain campaign leading up to the 2016 vote was a flawed one. “David Cameron became the leading cheerleader of the remain side, but he had spent the previous 20 years attacking the European Union,” said Miliband.
He said the government, 780 days after the vote, still had no policy on trade, regulation or market access. “The negotiations to unscramble the eggs of social, of economic, of environmental integration with Europe are going to go on for five or 10 years.”
Miliband said Brexit was squeezing the life out of politics in the UK and preventing “the social and economic reform we desperately need”.
He criticised Theresa May for not setting up a cross-party coalition to campaign to get the best outcome for the UK but also said it was not enough for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to stand aside and “let events take their course.”
Miliband was asked about accusations of antisemitism in the Labour party – the “purest and oldest and most disgusting” example of racism, he said – and called on people to stay and fight. “It completely grieves me,” he said. “I never believed I would see the day when antisemitism and the Labour party were in the same sentence.”
