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Miliband “to be Gordon Brown’s Brutus”, says bookmaker

By Matt | July 30, 2008

Bookmaker William Hill has slashed its odds on David Miliband becoming the next leader of the Labour Party following a flurry of bets on the Foreign Secretary in the last 24 hours. Hills cut Miliband from 9/2 to 7/2, making him the favourite to succeed Gordon Brown.

The increase in bets on Miliband came after yesterday’s Guardian published an article written by the Foreign Secretary which was widely interpreted to be him jockeying for position ahead of a challenge against Brown’s leadership of the Labour Party.

Hill’s spokesman Rupert Adams said, “Every bet accepted in the last twelve hours has been for David Miliband and he has leapt to the front of our betting, leapfrogging both Alan Johnson and Jack Straw.

“This is a very significant move and there can be little doubt that punters now expect David Miliband to be Gordon Brown’s Brutus.”

Whether punters are right to equate Miliband’s article – coded attack though it may be – with his coronation as Labour leader is another matter.

The Telegraph’s David Hughes points out that, “As Michael Heseltine would tell him, he who wields the dagger rarely inherits the crown,” referring to the 1990 political assassination of Margaret Thatcher by ‘Tarzan’ which instigated a Conservative leadership contest. Heseltine was expected to replace Thatcher at the top of the Tory party but ultimately lost out to John Major.

The comparison with Brutus doesn’t really pass muster, although it does add an air of suitably melodramatic classicism to the reaction to Miliband’s article. Brutus was a close friend of Julius Caesar before helping to murder him, while Miliband and Brown have been at daggers since the height of Tony Blair’s premiership.

But political punters might want to note that Brutus, like Heseltine, never got the top job either.

Topics: Political betting