“Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband.” So read the infamous tweet from David Cameron a few days before he won the 2015 general election. It’s now hard to imagine a time when the tweet didn’t read ironically.

Cameron’s victory, of course, would set in motion the chain of events that led to the Brexit vote, and with it, an extremely volatile political climate that would engulf the nation with no end in sight.

I know I’m not alone in wondering how different the world would have been if Miliband had become prime minister. Surely nothing could be worse than the dumpster fire that is our current reality.

But lose he did, and we are all left to cope with the repercussions – except, perhaps, for Cameron himself, who made a right mess of things and then went on his merry way.

Labour’s loss in 2015 is easily understood. The manifesto’s milquetoast policies failed to inspire anyone, and Ed’s robotic performances didn’t endear him to the wider electorate. At a time when people were hungry for radical change, as Corbyn’s ascension would later demonstrate, the party’s cautious offerings – like a minimum wage of £8 per hour by 2020 – simply weren’t good enough.

The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Show all 8 1 /8 The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Keir Starmer The former director of public prosecutions undoubtedly has announced that he is standing for the leadership. He is highly-regarded by both left-wingers and centrists in the party. As Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, he played a key role in the party’s eventual backing of a second referendum. Before becoming an MP, he was a human rights lawyer - conducting cases in international courts including the European Court of Human Rights. Launching his bid, Starmer said that Labour must listen to the public on how to change "restore trust in our party as a force for good." A YouGov poll places him comfortably in the lead as the preferred candidate of 36% of party members EPA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Lisa Nandy Wigan MP Lisa Nandy has announced she wil stand for the leadership. In a letter to the Wigan Post she said she wanted to bring Labour "home" to voters in its traditional strongholds who have abandoned the party. Nandy went on to say that she understands "that we have one chance to win back the trust of people in Wigan, Workington and Wrexham." A YouGov poll shows that Nandy is the first preference for 6% of partymembers. Getty The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rebecca Long Bailey A key ally of the current left-wing leadership of the party, the Salford & Eccles MP is viewed in some quarters as the natural successor to Mr Corbyn and describes herself as a “proud socialist”. Highly regarded by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. She won also won plaudits for her performance filling in for Corbyn both at prime minister’s questions and during the general election debates. The shadow business secretary grew up by Old Trafford football ground and began her working life serving at the counter of a pawn shop. Launching her leadership bid, Long Bailey said the party needs to make the positive case for immigration as a "positive force." She also broke with Corbyn over Trident, saying "If you have a deterrent you have to be prepared to use it." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Angela Rayner - Deputy leadership Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has joined the contest for deputy leadership of the party. After ruling herself out of running for the leadership, the Ashton-under-Lynne MP launched her bid for deputy warning that Labour faces the "biggest challenge" in its history and must "win or die." She is close with leadership contender Rebecca Long Bailey PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rosena Allin-Khan - Deputy leadership Shadow sport minister Rosena Allin-Khan said Labour need to listen with "humility" to lost voters as she launched her bid for the deputy leadership. Writing in The Independent, the MP for Tooting refelcted: "We shouldn’t have ignored the warning signs in Scotland, and now we’ve paid the price in northern England, across the midlands and in Wales." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Dawn Butler - Deputy leadership Shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler was first to announce her bid for the deputy leadership. The Brent Central MP has served in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet since 2016 PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Ian Murray - Deputy leadership Labour's only MP in Scotland said that the architects of the party's "catastrophic failure" in the December election can not be allowed to lead the party forward PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Richard Burgon - Deputy leadership Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon is standing as a continuity candidate, flaunting his loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn and saying it is wrong to blame the current leader for the election defeat PA

Yet throughout Ed’s time as Labour leader, it was hard to shake the nagging feeling that he wasn’t in total control. You’d often hear from his defenders that he was actually very left-wing, but that none of the party’s policies would reflect it.

I fear that within the party, Ed’s whole tenure was defined not by his political orientation, but by the unfair view that he stabbed his brother in the back by defeating him in the 2010 leadership contest. He took the reins of an institution with an old guard heavily embedded at every level, many of whom deeply resented that the “wrong brother” was in charge.

Why didn’t he fight back stronger? I believe the shock of winning the leadership never dissipated, and in a toxic environment rife with strong personalities and petty power struggles, self-doubt and imposter syndrome would kick in for even the most confident of leaders.

Ed’s time away from frontline politics, however, has done him wonders. Not only has he built up a lot of goodwill with the public, he has successfully transformed their perception of him.

His media appearances and Twitter hijinks have shown a side that audiences rarely got to see when he was leader of the opposition – amiable, laid back, self-assured and equipped with a biting sense of humour, His podcast, Reasons to be Cheerful, has shown a wide audience that he has a sound understanding of policy issues that affect us today.

In fact, when I was a local candidate for the Labour party, it was this very podcast I would recommend to voters when discussing things like public ownership, climate change, community regeneration or the NHS.

This transformation is why I believe Ed should seriously consider running for Labour leader again.

With Corbyn stepping down in the near future, the party finds itself at another crossroads. Another epochal battle for the soul of Labour has begun. Centrist candidates are already out there arguing that the party has gone too far left; those on the left, especially the hundreds and thousands of activists that joined because of Corbyn’s progressive vision, are loath to let it slide back to being what they consider “Tory lite”.

Any candidate from the left, including Rebecca Long-Bailey or Angela Rayner, will meanwhile face unfair accusations of being a Corbyn or McDonnell plant.

Ed’s decision to remain a backbencher throughout Corbyn’s tenure insulates him from this. He could be a unity candidate – the rare politician popular with both the left and centre of the party. He would also bring with him a wealth of experience at the helm, something no other candidate can offer.

While I appreciate the urge to move forward instead of backward, Ed isn’t the same politician he was, and this isn’t the same Labour party.

If there’s one thing Corbyn has achieved, it’s freeing the party from the vice-like grip of the old establishment that throttled it during the Miliband years. This year’s Labour manifesto was the most radical in decades. Put into practice, it could have put an end to the rising inequality and untold misery caused by years of austerity.

Labour just didn’t have the credibility with the electorate to have them believe we could deliver what we promised. Older, wiser and with something to prove, a radical Miliband could be that credible and formidable voice our movement needs.

Even on the party’s left, the story of Ed’s leadership increasingly read as one of wasted potential. No less than Owen Jones this year described Miliband as “a man who had the right diagnosis of Britain’s broken social order, but feared offering a genuinely courageous break with it, a man torn between the radicalism of his father and his time as a New Labour apparatchik”.