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The unthinkable really could happen. There's an alarmingly high chance that Labour's madcap energy secretary could end up with the keys to No 10. Sir Keir Starmer is on the ropes. The scale of Monday's rebellion was huge, and it isn't over yet. Wes Streeting is now poised to resign and trigger a leadership race that could topple the PM. If he does, that will give him the real edge over his two big rivals for the top job. Streeting isn't the bookies' favourite, though. That honour goes to Mayor of Manchester, back-stabbing Andy Burnham. Bet365 has him as 13/8 favourite. Streeting is in second place at 4/1, which puts him level pegging with Angela Rayner.

Yet Burnham and Rayner both have glaring problems. Burnham isn't an MP and needs to find a winnable Labour seat (warning: there aren't many). Rayner is still hampered by the HMRC investigation into how she sidestepped a £40,000 stamp duty bill on her seaside bolthole. Neither are ready to leap into the saddle today. By moving fast and hard, Streeting could knock them both out of the race. That still doesn't mean he'll win, though.

Instead, it could open the race open for a candidate who is purposely designed to block Wes Streeting from waltzing unchallenged into No 10. His name? Ed Miliband.

Streeting sits on the right of a party that keeps lurching leftwards. Labour activists want more tax, more spending, more borrowing, more nationalisation and closer ties with Brussels. The party's MPs are terrified by the rise of Zack Polanski's Green Party, which is hoovering up left-wing voters.

Blairite Streeting isn't the man to take the fight to Polanski. But Ed Miliband is.

Red Ed is hugely popular with Labour members, who see him as a man of conviction and drive. They love the way he comes up with crazy policies, like bringing net zero forward by five years, and sticks with them despite the cost or outcry. In an open leadership battle, he'd stand a good chance of winning. If it's purely between him and Streeting, there's only going to be one winner.

Miliband insists he doesn't want the job. He's not the only one. When he tried to become PM in 2015, voters didn't want him to do the job either. This time, they don't have a say. Our next PM will be appointed by MPs, trade union bosses and activists. And that gives Ed Miliband a real shot at power.

Miliband is one of the most experienced Labour members, having led the party and served in multiple cabinet jobs. He's also firmly on the left and wants the state to spend more, tax more and borrow more, while covering the countryside with as many windmills and solar panels as China can supply.

In power, he'll tear the country apart by waging all-out class warfare. He's already called for a string of tax hikes on higher earners, property owners and investors. He'd also soften Labour's line on migration and possibly rejoin the EU's customs union and single market. Ideally, he'd love to reverse Brexit altogether. Obviously, bond yields will soar and the economy tank on his watch. And no tumble dryer will be safe. Is that what Britain wants?

In 2024, the country voted for moderate, sensible, practical Starmer. Instead, we got extreme, radical, incompetent Starmer. To end up with a hard-left barnstormer like Miliband would complete the betrayal. Yet it could happen. Possibly within weeks. The prospect is chilling.