MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) Former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband will make his return to frontline politics after taking up a position in new leader Keir Starmer's shadow cabinet, the party announced on Monday.
Miliband, who led the party from 2010 to 2015, was named as Labour's new shadow business, energy and industrial secretary in a wave of announcements after Starmer won the party's vote to replace outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday.
"This is a new team that will be relentlessly focused on acting in the national interest to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding Labour so that it can win the next election," Starmer said of the appointments.
In a statement published on Twitter, Miliband stated that he was looking forward to working in the new shadow cabinet, and also that the world must continue to pay attention to the ongoing climate crisis amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
"We will need to reshape our economy, addressing the insecurity many millions of workers face. We must also return to climate change as the unavoidable long-term issue of our time, including with a recovery based on providing economic justice through a Green New Deal," Miliband wrote.
Angela Rayner, who won the vote to become the party's deputy leader, will also become the party's chair.
Other prominent appointments include Rebecca Long-Bailey, Starmer's main rival in the leadership election, who will take up the role of shadow education secretary.
Anneliese Dodds will serve as shadow chancellor and Lisa Nandy, who finished third in the leadership race, will become the new shadow foreign secretary, the party announced.
Keir Starmer won 56.2 percent of the ballot in the first round of Labour's leadership contest to win outright. He replaces Corbyn, who led the Labour Party to its worst election result since 1935 in December's general election that saw the Conservative Party, under the leadership of Boris Johnson, gain a comprehensive majority in the House of Commons.
Corbyn will not serve as a member of Starmer's shadow cabinet.
