David Miliband proudly published his formidable donors list on his website yesterday. Intriguingly the law firm Mishcon de Reya have given the favourite in the race £13,077 through a donation-in-kind of legal services. This strikes an odd note given David’s less than amiable relationship with said law firm previously.

Last year John Jackson, Mishcon’s chairman,  accused the then Foreign Secretary of a breach of the rule of law over the case of the tortured terrorist suspect Binyam Mohamed. For someone now providing valuable support through his firm, he has certainly changed his tune. Jackson wrote:

“The Foreign Secretary has, apparently, said that the judges were mistaken and that at no time did US authorities make the threats set out in the judgement. This is said to have been confirmed by very senior U.S. spokespeople. If the judges were mistaken what, precisely, was the basis of the Foreign Secretary’s Immunity Certificate? And, come to think of it, why is he the Minister concerned with intelligence sharing? This is beginning to look like the proverbial can of worms.“

Three days later the donor went even further and hinted that Miliband was not being entirely straight regarding whether the US threatened British authorities about the case:

“David Miliband now claims the US authorities did not make threats in relation to the sharing of intelligence information and that he had not raised this aspect of the BM case with colleagues in the US since the inauguration of President Obama. This is so astonishing as to defy belief when placed next to what the Divisional Court said in its last judgement published last Wednesday“

David Miliband’s own brother doesn’t think he is the best man for the job, and even those who are throwing money at him seem to doubt his honesty. When both blood and money question the man, eyebrows are inevitably raised. If they don’t trust him, why should anyone else? What changed Jackson’s mind about David Miliband? Why the cash? What was promised?