Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn must ''think hard and deep'' about whether he is sufficiently committed to politics to return to the Cabinet, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock said today.

The possibility of a return to the political frontline for Mr Milburn, who quit the Cabinet insisting that he wanted to devote more time to his young family, appears to be a central factor in the shape of the Government reshuffle which Prime Minister Tony Blair has confirmed will come by the end of the week.

Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Kinnock was asked whether he would like Mr Milburn to be back in the frontline. Mr Kinnock said: ''Oh, I don't mind, he's a nice chap.''

But he added: ''I think that he has really got to consider, if he didn't want to give the commitment - and I completely understand the reasons of a man with a young family - last year, then he has really got to think hard and deep about the nature of the commitment he would have to show at least over the next year to the election and beyond.

''That is a tough job. He is ideologically and intellectually and physically up to it, but whether he has got the scale of commitment to actually give 24 hours a day, only he can tell you that.''

There is speculation today that Mr Blair has now dropped the idea of replacing party chairman Ian McCartney with Mr Milburn.

But there are suggestions that Mr Milburn is reluctant to return to the Cabinet unless he has some kind of central role in co-ordinating the General Election campaign - a particularly sensitive issue as that role has previously been taken by Chancellor Gordon Brown, who is widely thought to have frosty relations with Mr Milburn.

Mr Kinnock, an outgoing European Commissioner, suggested that the ongoing speculation about the reshuffle was damaging for the Government.

Downing Street should be wary of fuelling that speculation, he added.

''The political writers have got their very own soap story in which the speculation about the speculation about the speculation can become the storyline.

''So the first bit of advice that I would humbly offer to my friend Tony is try to ignore as much as possible that you read in the last couple of days.

''And secondly, tell your people, if they are feeding this speculation, just to shut up.''