The front page of yesterday’s Daily Mail carried the headline: ‘Don’t put the economy at mercy of “Red Ed”’, a reference to Ed Miliband, the messianic Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The accompanying story outlined the charge sheet that makes him such an unsuitable candidate to be Andy Burnham’s Chancellor.

The doctrinaire obsession with Net Zero even if it means destroying jobs and pushing up energy bills.

His track record as a tax-and-spend merchant in the mould of so many Labour Chancellors of the past, with all the horrifying consequences that would have for the long-term health of the economy.

And, of course, the lingering question marks over his character raised by his diabolically ruthless decision to stab his own brother in the back in his successful bid to win the Labour leadership in 2010.

But – and you may want to make sure that you’re sitting down at this point – I have a sneaking feeling that installing Miliband at No 11 Downing Street might not be the worst idea ever.

Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that ‘Red Ed’ stands head and shoulders above all the other contenders for the post.

Let me explain. The reason that Miliband has survived in elected politics for more than 20 years is because he is far more bright and personable than his public image might suggest.

Ever since he was photographed wrestling with a bacon sandwich at a cafe in New Covent Garden Market in 2014, there has been a temptation to see him as a goofy nerd, with the social awkwardness of an egghead who has never bothered to master everyday tasks.

But my own encounters with Miliband over the years have shown me that he is someone with both poise and charm.

Tall and assertive, he has a very real public presence. Put many politicians in a crowded room, surrounded by journalists, and they will manifest the sort of aggression and chippiness born of years of being mauled by the media. Miliband, on the other hand, appears to be entirely at ease in such environments.

Then there is his formidable intellect. He got his first job in politics working for the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Harriet Harman but Gordon Brown ‘burgled him off Harriet’, according to Brown’s former spin doctor, Charlie Whelan, after noticing his number-crunching skills, skills that were nurtured at the London School of Economics and Harvard University.

It was around this time that I had my own first face-to-face meeting with Miliband. He offered to come to the Daily Mail’s office to explain to the City and economics team and the leader writers how the sweeping reforms he proposed to make to the benefits system would work in practice.

His willingness to interact with people not necessarily inclined to give him an easy ride is in sharp contrast to Rachel Reeves.

She has an unnerving habit of unveiling untested initiatives, defending them to the last ditch and then jettisoning them when it’s clear they are seen as kryptonite by the electorate.

The sharp U-turns on, first, the winter fuel allowance for 10million OAPs and then the cuts to Personal Independence Payments are both good examples of Reeves’ shoot first and ask questions afterwards approach.

In contrast, during his visit to Mail HQ, Miliband explained – with the help of a whiteboard – exactly how a new system of working family tax credits would operate and how it would incentivise people to stay in the workforce, rather than simply live off the state.

His presentation demonstrated a profound knowledge of how the welfare state interacts with the rest of the economy and the proposals he unveiled that day were the forerunners to the universal credits developed by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and implemented by the 2010 coalition government.

Miliband also has backbone. Whatever we may say about his obstinate adherence to the Net Zero plan, his refusal to buckle in the face of opposition from politicians and trade union leaders wanting to ‘drill baby drill’ shows he has the inner steel lacking in so many members of Keir Starmer’s government.

Imagine, if that same missionary zeal and steadfast resolve were applied to the goal of reinvigorating Britain’s economy and restoring order to the public finances.

Even the bond markets, which will hold the key to the Burnham team’s hold on power, would be impressed.

He may be the son of the late Marxist academic Ralph Miliband – who published works such as Socialism For A Sceptical Age and Class Power And State Power – but Miliband Jr earned his economic spurs under a man with a much more realistic approach.

It was Brown, after all, who earned international recognition for his sure-footed handling of the aftermath of the credit crunch of 2008 when he was barely a year into his premiership.

And Brown, his key aide Ed Balls and Miliband – who was then rather lower down the pecking order – recognised what subsequent governments have ignored: endless borrowing by the state comes at an enormous cost.

In the current fiscal year, taxpayers will fork out an astonishing £135billion to pay the interest charges on the nation’s debt mountain.

Imagine the progress we could have made if that sum was available to spend on the restoration of the nation’s depleted defences or to make much needed investments in our energy, water, tech, telecoms and transport infrastructure.

Brown’s cleverness when he was in No 11 was to recognise that the Treasury had a culture that stifled original ideas and to devise strategies to combat it.

Together with a small coterie of advisers, he developed a radical agenda – notably the independence for the Bank of England, which had been thwarted by the Treasury for decades – and presented it to gobsmacked mandarins as a fait accompli. Miliband was among those who looked on and learned.

It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Red Ed might be just the person to think radically about the cost of a welfare budget forecast to gobble up £350billion of taxpayers’ money in 2026-27.

There are already signs that some senior members of the party are growing weary of their more Left-wing colleagues’ obsession with boosting spending in this area.

Among the tranche of emails and texts released as part of the postmortem analysis of the disastrous appointment of Peter Mandelson as our US ambassador, was one from Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, a long-time ally of Miliband’s.

In one WhatsApp message to Mandelson, he communicated his exasperation over fellow ministers who constantly asked: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’

In the same way that it is often easier for Left-leaning governments to double down on national security, so it would be simpler for a decidedly Leftist Chancellor to take on the stubborn backbenchers and entrenched vested interests who have blocked reform thus far.

It can’t be denied that, as Energy Secretary, Miliband has made many enemies, particularly among North Sea oil producers and the trade unions that represent their workers.

His failure to back offshore drilling, in an era of energy uncertainty and surging imported prices, has been a grotesque error.

But his single-mindedness and refusal to be bullied into U-turns shows just the kind of willpower urgently needed at the Treasury.