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Ed Miliband was Labour's youngest ever leader. So when he quit after losing the 2015 general election, aged 45, it was always possible that he would return to frontline politics.

After all, William Hague served as foreign secretary after a disastrous spell as Conservative leader.

Now Mr Miliband is on course for a cabinet comeback if Labour were to win the next election.

He is one of the big winners in Sir Keir Starmer's shuffle.

The big losers are mostly Jeremy Corbyn's closest allies, ruthlessly dispatched to the back benches, while some MPs hoping for a call-up have been overlooked.

And despite Mr Corbyn's allies hoping he might remain in the shadow cabinet, there is no job for the outgoing Labour leader, though realistically - with Sir Keir promising change and fresh faces - that was never really a runner.

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After serving as an adviser to Gordon Brown before becoming an MP, Mr Miliband - who controversially defeated his brother David to win Labour's crown in 2010 - held two posts in Mr Brown's Cabinet.

Mr Miliband spent a year as Cabinet Office minister after Mr Brown became prime minister and then, in 2008, he became energy secretary - a brief now included in his new post as shadow business, energy and industrial secretary.

But, in the next few weeks and months, Mr Miliband's most high-profile role will be leading Labour's response to the government's attempts to help businesses devastated by the coronavirus lockdown.

It could all have been so different.

Mr Miliband - now already 50-1 with Ladbrokes to be the next Labour leader - saw his majority in his Doncaster North constituency slump from a healthy 14,024 to just 2,370 at December's general election.

And had Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, which polled 8,294 votes in a constituency that voted 71.7% Leave at the EU referendum, bowed to Tory pressure not to stand in key Labour seats, Mr Miliband could now be an ex-MP.

Besides Mr Miliband's comeback, the other headlines in the new shadow cabinet appointments are rewards for leading supporters of Sir Keir Starmer and a brutal purge by the new leader of prominent Corbyn supporters.

Defeated pro-Corbyn leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey, however, remains in the shadow cabinet as shadow education secretary, a post previously held by her friend and flatmate Angela Rayner, now deputy leader.

Did Sir Keir's new deputy intervene to save her close friend from humiliation?

The leadership runner-up will be disappointed she's not succeeding her mentor John McDonnell as shadow chancellor.

But education is a meaty portfolio.

A big winner is the leading Windrush campaigner David Lammy, a Harvard-educated barrister and big Starmer supporter, who replaces diehard Corbyn ally Richard Burgon in the senior post of shadow justice secretary.

Another Starmer backer, Brownite John Healey, is now shadow defence secretary.

Healey? Defence? Sound familiar? His namesake Denis Healey, one of the giants of Labour Party politics, was defence secretary for six years, from 1964-70.

Emily Thornberry, formerly shadow foreign secretary and briefly a leadership candidate, survives the purge, but is demoted to shadow international trade secretary.

But that could be a high-profile post once Brexit trade talks are back in the news again after coronavirus.

Another Starmer backer and rising star, Jim McMahon, joins the shadow cabinet as shadow transport secretary, replacing Andy McDonald, a Corbyn ally who survives with a sideways move to shadow employment rights and rrotections secretary.

Mr McMahon, although not yet 40 but already a front-bencher after less than five years inpParliament, became an MP after an impressive record as a local government leader. One to watch for the future.

Two deputy leadership candidates are promoted.

Ian Murray, Labour's only MP in Scotland, returns as shadow scotland secretary after being churlishly snubbed by Mr Corbyn over his persistent criticism of the former leader.

Rosena Allin-Khan, the A&E doctor who was runner-up to Ms Rayner in the final round of the deputy poll, becomes shadow minister for mental health, which could be a key post during the coronavirus crisis.

She will have been hoping for a more senior post, however.

Although one great survivor, Barry Gardiner, has gone, another - Lord Falconer - is back as shadow attorney general, replacing Corbyn ally Shami Chakrabarti, author of the antisemitism report dismissed by critics as a whitewash.

Lord Falconer, famously once Tony Blair's flatmate, is possibly the only person to have served under Blair, Brown, Miliband, Corbyn and now Starmer.

Newly re-appointed Labour chief whip Nick Brown has served all except Mr Miliband.

So who has missed out?

There's no comeback for other leading members of Mr Brown's cabinet and Mr Miliband's shadow cabinet, such as Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper, who were leading figures in last year's Brexit battles in the House of Commons.

And Jess Phillips, the outspoken Corbyn critic who very briefly stood for leader, has been snubbed so far, but may be given one of the middle ranking shadow ministerial posts to be announced shortly.

There will be outrage on the Labour left at the scale of Sir Keir's purge of Corbyn allies.

But at the same time there will be smug satisfaction among those centrist Labour MPs delighted by the clear-out of Corbyn allies.

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Of the 14 kicked out, Richard Burgon, Dawn Butler, Dan Carden, Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett all have the potential to cause trouble from the back benches.

Especially as they will be joined there by Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell.

Others, like Tracy Brabin, Peter Dowd, Andrew Gwynne, Barbara Keeley and Rachel Maskell, can rightly claim to be unlucky to be included in the clear-out.

It's possible they could return in the future, however.

Sir Keir has boasted that his shadow cabinet is gender balanced, with 17 women and 15 men and there are seven BAME members.

Critics claim many of the BAME MPs are in junior roles. Not so Mr Lammy, though.

The new leader claims his shadow cabinet showcases the breadth, depths and talents of the Labour Party.

Under Mr Corbyn, many of the party's talents were either ignored, resigned or refused to serve.

There are no refuseniks now. Or at least so far.

But Sir Keir's purge is likely to extend shortly to pro-Corbyn allies among senior party staff members, including Labour general secretary Jennie Formby.

There is likely to be some criticism of the decision to bring back Mr Miliband.

And the resentment of the left over the purge of the Corbynistas should not be underestimated.

Honeymoon period for the new leader? Almost certainly, despite coronavirus.

But it could be short-lived and there may be trouble ahead.