Evening Standard/London

BBC political editor Nick Robinson has revealed he was approached by Labour to become Ed Miliband’s spin doctor before the general election.
The broadcaster said a “senior Labour figure” approached him 10 months before the election with the promise of a job afterwards in Number 10 if the party was successful in its bid for power.
But Robinson said he rejected the offer - and remained “committed to journalism”.
Details of the approach are revealed by Robinson - who recently underwent treatment for cancer - in his latest book serialised in The Mail on Sunday.
Robinson describes how on “a rather bad mobile line” he was told by the senior Labour figure: “The party knows it has a problem and is determined to fix it. The leader needs advice, and it has to come from someone with sufficient stature to ensure he’ll listen to it.”
Robinson, who was involved in Conservative politics in his student days, said that at first he thought he was being asked if he could recommend someone to take charge of Miliband’s “presentational difficulties”.
“I began to rack my brains until it began to dawn on me that I had misheard. I was being asked whether I would consider taking on the job of spin doctor, with a role at No 10 to follow, naturally. That’s right - me,” he wrote.
“For the rest of the conversation I had to resist the urge to roar with laughter and inquire whether the caller had got the wrong number.
“Instead, I politely expressed my thanks for being considered and explained I remained committed to journalism (just as I did when the papers reported a long time ago that I’d been approached to work for ‘the other side’.)”
Robinson said he had no idea whether the approach had been made with Miliband’s knowledge or - as he thought was more likely - by “someone freelancing to try to be helpful”.