David flies in to help the British ‘make up their minds’ about the EU

Two years ago, David Miliband flew in from New York to warn Britain not to leave the EU. To his surprise and disappointment, the country failed to heed his advice.

Graciously, however, Mr Miliband has decided to give it another chance. Yesterday, he flew in from New York to tell it that, if it will insist on leaving the EU, it should at least stay in the single market.

Coming from Mr Miliband, this was an intriguing argument, given that during the referendum campaign he’d warned voters that “quitting the EU means quitting the single market”.

Yesterday, however, he told them to ignore “the mantra that leaving the EU must mean leaving the single market”.

Well, I suppose it will be easier for them to ignore the mantra now that he’s stopped chanting it.

The former foreign secretary – who is now the president of an aid organisation – had joined forces with Nicky Morgan and Sir Nick Clegg, two other Remainers, to make the case for what Mr Miliband called a “sensible” Brexit.

The three were speaking at a factory in Essex. It was a curious line-up. As Mr Miliband is Labour, Sir Nick is a Lib Dem and Mrs Morgan a Tory, it was meant to represent cross-party unity, but Mr Miliband and Sir Nick aren’t MPS any more, and so will have no say in any Commons votes. Both men appear to be floating in a political limbo: Commons careers over, yet a good 20 years too young to qualify as “elder statesmen” whose views must automatically be respected or at least indulged.

Still, if that glum thought ever troubles Mr Miliband, you wouldn’t guess.

He doesn’t come across as a man who suffers deeply from self-doubt.

I say man, but in many ways he’s more like a cat: he has a cat’s sleekness, a cat’s aloofness, a cat’s nonchalant grandeur. I watched him whenever it was Sir Nick or Mrs Morgan’s turn to speak.

Head tilted ever so slightly back, he would peer at them with interest, frowning quizzically, as if he was sure he’d seen them somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place them.

Journalists asked him whether he’d really flown 3,500 miles just to give a single speech. Was this the first move in a carefully plotted comeback?

Not at all, protested Mr Miliband; he simply had “a sense of passion” about “the fate of the country”.

Also, “sometimes distance lends perspective”; from his vantage point in New York, he could see that Britain was stumbling towards “great tragedy”.

Which was why he wanted to offer the benefit of “whatever experience, expertise or ideas I have”.

But, asked a journalist, why should the British people listen to him?

Mr Miliband smiled tolerantly. “The best thing I can say to that,” he said, “is that I trust them to make up their own minds.”

Except about the thing they already made up their minds about.