Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the elder brother of opposition Labor Party leader Ed Miliband, has decided to retire from British politics. He wrote about this on his blog.

Miliband plans to take on humanitarian aid projects at the global level and head the International Rescue Committee, based in New York. The organization provides support to people displaced by conflict. The politician will begin his new line of work in September.

He explained his decision by saying that he would like to be involved in “supporting the weak and vulnerable” in all positions, and the American institute provides him with an ideal opportunity to devote himself to such activities.

David Miliband lost the Labor leadership bid to his younger brother in 2010. Since then, close relatives have not been able to become part of the same political team. Ed twice offered David high positions in the leadership of the party, but he rejected these offers each time. Instead, he served as an ordinary MP, representing the interests of the South Shields constituency near Newcastle in the north-east of England. Despite his retreat to a minor position, he continued to be seen as Ed's main rival for the Labor leadership.

The brothers represent different trends in the party. David was one of the comrades of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair who professed the ideology of the “New Labor”, which was largely committed to cooperation with business. Ed, in turn, is considered the leader of the group of “traditional” Laborists, who, as before, rely on the working class and the poor.

At the same time, as Bloomberg reports, another former ally of Blair, member of the House of Lords Peter Mandelson, believes that in the future David Miliband may return to British politics. Mandelson himself repeatedly resigned from the government, but returned again as a minister.

David Miliband headed the Foreign Office from 2007 to 2010. During the war in South Ossetia in August 2008, he had an emotional conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In particular, Lavrov, responding to claims from his British colleague, called Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili a “fucking lunatic,” thus quoting one of the European politicians.

In addition, Lavrov was credited with the phrase: “Who are you to fucking lecture me?!” (“Who are you to fucking lecture me?!”) addressed to Miliband during this conversation. This incident, however, was later denied by both sides.

David Miliband quit British politics to work as a lifeguard