Britain’s Labour elects Ed Miliband as new leader

Reuters

Mancheste, 26 September 2010:  Britain’s opposition Labour Party chose former Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as its new leader on Saturday after a cliffhanger vote. Miliband, 40, defeated his older brother David, a former foreign secretary, by a wafer-thin margin to take over the helm of the centre-left party.

 

He succeeds former prime minister Gordon Brown who resigned after the party lost the May election, ending 13 years in power. David Miliband was favoured by centrists in the party whereas Ed has slightly more left-leaning views and won the backing of major trade unions who help finance the party.

 

Miliband won in the fourth round of the vote count, by a margin of a little over one per cent, to steal the prize that had seemed within the grasp of his older brother for much of the leadership campaign. "David, I love you so much as a brother and I have such extraordinary respect for the campaign that you ran - the strength and eloquence that you showed," Miliband said in a heartfelt message to his brother.

 

"I have to unify this party and I will," the winner, who was propelled to victory by strong union backing, told party activists gathered for their annual conference in the northwestern city of Manchester. "Today the work of the new generation begins," he said.

 

 

The new leader’s focus will be on fighting deep public spending cuts planned by the ruling coalition which Labour says threaten public services and will hit the poor hardest.

 

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition formed after the May election blames Labour incompetence for Britain’s record peacetime budget deficit and says it must take urgent action to eradicate it or risk a loss of investor confidence in Britain.

 

Factbox: Key facts about Ed Miliband

 

- Miliband took on his more experienced older brother David, the former foreign secretary, and three other candidates for the leadership of the centre-left Labour Party. David initially was the strong favourite but the slightly more left-leaning Ed’s campaign gradually built up steam.

- Right-wing newspapers have dubbed him "Red Ed" because of his backing from trades unions and appeal to Labour’s core vote.

- Supporters say Ed, who wrote Labour’s 2010 election manifesto, has a more relaxed presentational style than his brother that makes him better equipped to counter Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.

- Born in December 1969, the son of Jewish immigrants, he studied at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and is seen as one of the party’s rising stars.

- Before becoming a member of parliament, Miliband chaired the Treasury’s council of economic advisers and then served as an adviser to then finance minister Gordon Brown.

- Elected the Labour MP for the northern English seat of Doncaster North in May 2005, he is less well known among the British public than his brother but support from the trade unions, Labour’s biggest financial backers, helped him to secure the party leadership.