Ed Miliband

The Right Honourable Ed Miliband MP
Miliband in his campaign for Labour leadership.
Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 September 2010
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Harriet Harman
Leader of the Labour Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 September 2010
Deputy	Harriet Harman
Preceded by	Harriet Harman (Acting)
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
In office 11 May 2010 – 25 September 2010
Leader	Harriet Harman
Preceded by	Greg Clark
Succeeded by	Meg Hillier
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
In office 3 October 2008 – 12 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	Chris Huhne
Minister for the Cabinet Office Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Hilary Armstrong
Succeeded by	Liam Byrne
Member of Parliament for Doncaster North
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Kevin Hughes
Majority	12,656 (40%)
Personal details
Born	(1969-12-24) 24 December 1969 London, England, UK
Political party	Labour
Domestic partner	Justine Thornton
Alma mater	Corpus Christi College, Oxford London School of Economics

Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British Labour Party politician, who is the current Leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of the Opposition of the United Kingdom. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005 and served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Gordon Brown.

Born in London, Miliband graduated from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, becoming first a Labour Party researcher, and rising to become one of Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidants, being appointed Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers. Miliband was elected the Member of Parliament for the South Yorkshire constituency of Doncaster North in the 2005 election.

As Prime Minister, Gordon Brown appointed Miliband as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in his first Cabinet on 28 June 2007. Miliband was subsequently promoted to the post of Secretary of State for the newly-created Department of Energy and Climate Change, a position he held from 3 October 2008 to 12 May 2010. On 25 September 2010, after a contest in which his brother David Miliband also stood, he was elected as Leader of the Labour Party, with the support of 50.654% of the electoral college.

Background and early life

Born in London, Miliband is the younger son of Polish Jewish immigrants. His mother, Marion Kozak, survived the Holocaust thanks to being protected by Polish Catholics. His father, the Marxist intellectual Ralph Miliband (a Brussels native whose parents were from Warsaw, Poland), fled Belgium to the UK during World War II. As a teenager, he reviewed films and plays on LBC Radio's Young London programme as one of its "Three O'Clock Reviewers", and worked as an intern to Tony Benn.

Education

Miliband was educated at Primrose Hill Primary School, Camden and then Haverstock Comprehensive School in the Chalk Farm area of north London. After completing his A Levels, he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, gaining a Bachelor of Arts, followed by the London School of Economics, where he obtained a Masters in Economics.

Political biography

After a brief career in television journalism, Miliband became a speechwriter and researcher for Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Harriet Harman in 1993, and then for Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown the following year. In 1997, following Labour's landslide election victory, Miliband was appointed as one of Gordon Brown's special advisers with specific responsibility as a speechwriter. In 1999, Miliband was involved in the process of building Labour's manifesto for the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections. He was spotted leaving the Scottish Labour Party's headquarters on the night that a key policy meeting was held, involving the Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar and senior party officials, to consider the party's election strategy and details of Labour's manifesto. As a result, Miliband resigned from his post as Special Adviser at the Treasury, to work on the Scottish election campaign. It was reported that part of Miliband's Scottish role was to take charge of Labour's rebuttal operation.

Harvard

On 25 July 2002 it was announced that Miliband would take a 12-month unpaid sabbatical from the Treasury to be a visiting scholar at the Centre for European Studies of Harvard University for two semesters. He spent his time at Harvard teaching economics, and stayed there after September 2003 teaching a course titled "What's Left? The Politics of Social Justice". He was granted access to Senator John Kerry and reported back to Brown on the Presidential hopeful's progress. In January 2004 he was appointed chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers, directing the UK's long-term economic planning.

In government

In early 2005, Miliband resigned from the Treasury to stand for election. He beat off a challenge from Michael Dugher, then a special advisor to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, to be the Labour candidate in the safe Labour seat of Doncaster North. Gordon Brown visited Doncaster North during the general election campaign to support his former adviser. Miliband was elected to Parliament on 5 May. In Tony Blair's cabinet reshuffle in May 2006, he was made the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office.

In June 2007, when Brown became Prime Minister, Miliband was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and promoted to the Cabinet. This meant that he and his brother David Miliband became the first brothers to serve in Cabinet since Edward and Oliver Stanley in 1938. He was given the task of drafting Labour's manifesto for the next general election.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

Ed Miliband with Richard Lambert, the director of the Confederation of British Industry at a Climate Change Summit in 2008.

On 3 October 2008, Miliband was promoted to Secretary of State for the newly-created Department of Energy and Climate Change in a Cabinet reshuffle. On 16 October, Miliband announced that the British government would legislate to oblige itself to cut greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050, rather than the 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions previously announced.

Copenhagen Summit 2009

Miliband represented the UK at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, from which emerged a global commitment to provide an additional $10bn a year to fight the effects of climate change, with an additional $100bn a year provided by 2020. The conference was not able to achieve a legally-binding agreement however. Miliband accused China of deliberately foiling attempts at a binding agreement; China explicitly denied this, accusing British politicians of engaging in "political scheme".

Parliamentary expenses

During 2009, Ed Miliband was named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" of the expenses scandal, for claiming one of the lowest amounts of expenses in the House of Commons, despite being entitled to more than the average MP because of his role as Secretary of State.

2010 Labour Party leadership election

Main article: Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2010

The Right Honourable Ed Miliband MP
Candidate for Leader of the Labour Party
Election date result announced 25 September 2010
Opponent(s)	Diane Abbott Ed Balls Andy Burnham David Miliband
Incumbent	Harriet Harman (pro tempore)
Website	Official website

Campaign

On 14 May 2010, following his brother's announcement of his own candidacy, Ed Miliband announced that he would stand as a candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party, following the resignation of Gordon Brown three days earlier. He launched his campaign back at his alma mater, the LSE, which holds strong family history ties, and was nominated by 62 fellow Labour MPs. The other candidates were Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and his elder brother David Miliband.

On 23 May, former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock announced that he would endorse Miliband's campaign to become the next Leader, saying that he had "the capacity to inspire people" and that he had "strong values and the ability to 'lift' people". Other senior Labour figures who backed Ed included former Deputy Leader Roy Hattersley. By 9 June, the deadline for entry into the Labour leadership contest, Miliband had been nominated by just over 24% of the PLP, double the amount required.

By September, Miliband had received the support of 6 Trade Unions, including both Unite and UNISON, 151 of the Constituency Labour Parties, 3 affiliated socialist societies, and half of the Labour MEPs.

He won the election, the result of which was announced on 25 September 2010, after third and fourth preferences votes were counted, beating his brother by 1.3%. He had his first Prime Minister's Questions as Labour Leader on 13 October 2010, raising questions about the government's announced removal of non-means tested child benefit.

Leader of the Opposition

Main article: Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)

On becoming leader of the Labour Party on 25 September 2010, Miliband also became Leader of the Opposition. At the age of 40, he is the youngest of Labour's ten leaders since World War II. Miliband is also the Jewish leader of the Labour Party.

Shadow Cabinet

Main article: Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband

Following the election on 7 October 2010, Ed Miliband appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 8 October 2010. Amongst others he appointed Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls became Shadow Home Secretary and Yvette Cooper was chosen as Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Personal life

His current partner is Justine Thornton, a Cambridge-educated barrister. They met in 2004, and live together in north London where he grew up. They have one son.

His previous partner was former Blair aide Liz Lloyd, who went to school in Guildford with his former Cabinet colleague James Purnell. At the end of July 1998 it was reported that they had split up.

After previously commenting that his religious views were a private matter, in an interview with Radio 5 Live in reply to a question from Nicky Campbell he was quoted as saying, "I don't believe in God personally, but I have great respect for those people who do."

External links

• Ed Miliband, MP for Doncaster North official site
• Ed Miliband for Labour Leader official campaign website
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou