Ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband has channelled Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying “I’ll be back” as he suggested he could return to frontline politics.
Miliband has been on the back benches since he led Labour to defeat in 2015 but has remained prominent, thanks in part to work as a radio, podcast host and Twitter commentator.
He has also seen Theresa May’s Government adapt proposals Labour advocated under his leadership, such as the pledge to cap energy prices, which one senior Tory called “re-heated Milibandism” in reference to Miliband’s 2013 pledge to freeze them.
When the BBC’s Nick Robinson told Miliband he was a “minister in waiting”, the ex-leader said: “I don’t rule it out.”
With gentle encouragement from Robinson, he jokingly acknowledged Schwarzenegger’s famous line from The Terminator: “I’ll be back.”
“After the election... it was never really a serious thought in my mind ‘I’m going to give it all up, go and be a goat herder’,” Miliband said on Robinson’s podcast Political Thinking.
“No offence to any goat herders who are listening... I said when I resigned: I’m somebody believes you can play a role as a leader or not as a leader. I totally believe that.”
Miliband last year called on his successor Jeremy Corbyn to resign when it appeared the left-winger was leading the party to electoral oblivion.
But after Corbyn’s surprise performance in the snap general election, Miliband said he had been “wrong” to call on him to go.
The 47-year-old told Robinson he was “relatively young by the standards of an MP”, adding: “I’m not about all give it all up.”
“I think there’s a lot to be fought for in the next 10, 20 years,” he added.
“What did Arnold Schwarzenegger say?” Robinson asked.
“I’ll be back,” Miliband said, laughing and adding: “I don’t think I should channel Arnie.”