Is Ed Miliband mounting a coup? (No)

The Sunday Telegraph’s Camilla Turner was perplexed at the weekend as to the presence at the National Security Council of Ed Miliband, the energy secretary.

Under the headline ‘Knives out for Miliband as he ‘snatches steering wheel’ from Starmer’, the paper’s political editor claimed the former Labour leader had “replaced Morgan McSweeney as Sir Keir Starmer’s right-hand man” and said some – unnamed – figures were questioning “whether the former Labour leader is trying to take control of No 10’s steering wheel”.

“Some government insiders have questioned why Mr Miliband was in the room during a meeting of the powerful national security council (NSC) last Friday ahead of the strikes,” wrote Turner. “Others have suggested his growing influence was symptomatic of the soft left of the party reasserting control over the government’s political direction after Mr McSweeney quit Downing Street.

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She described a ‘source’ as saying “It’s not really clear why the energy secretary should be in the NSC” and describing his presence as “odd”.

It is true that the permanent members of the NSC are the deputy prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary, home secretary, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, defence secretary and attorney general. But government documents state “other ministers will be invited according to the agenda”.

Perhaps you, reader, might think there might be a reason why the energy secretary might be invited to talks over a conflict in which has seen Iran attack Saudi oil facilities, forced the Strait of Hormuz to close, hiked prices, shut down Qatar’s main gas facility, caused the energy minister of that country to warn of halting exports and declaring force majeure and threatened food production? Because Camilla Turner sure can’t. Must be a cabinet coup!