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Ed Miliband

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The Right Honourable
Ed Miliband

MP
Miliband in his campaign for Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2010.
Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent
Assumed office
25 September 2010
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byHarriet Harman
Leader of the Labour Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
25 September 2010
DeputyHarriet Harman
Preceded byHarriet Harman (Acting)
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
In office
3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byChris Huhne
Minister for the Cabinet Office
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byHilary Armstrong
Succeeded byLiam Byrne
Member of Parliament
for Doncaster North
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded byKevin Hughes
Majority12,656 (40%)
Personal details
Born (1969-12-24) 24 December 1969 (age 54)
London, United Kingdom
Political partyLabour
Alma materCorpus 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. He is also the first Jewish leader of the Labour Party.

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 general election.

As Prime Minister, Gordon Brown appointed Miliband as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office in his first Cabinet on 28 June 2007. Miliband was subsequently promoted to the post of Secretary of State at the newly-created Department of Energy and Climate Change, a position he held from 3 October 2008 to 11 May 2010. On 25 September 2010 he was elected Leader of the Labour Party with the support of 50.654% of the electoral college.

He is the son of Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband and the younger brother of David Miliband, a leading Labour politician who also contested and was narrowly defeated in the 2010 Labour Leadership contest by his brother. Together the two were the first siblings to sit simultaneously in the British Cabinet since Edward, Lord Stanley and his brother Oliver in 1938.

Early life

Born in London, Miliband is the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Marion Kozak, who was sheltered by a Catholic family in the Nazi-occupied Poland,[1] and Marxist intellectual Ralph Miliband (a Brussels native whose parents were from Warsaw), who fled Belgium during World War II.[2] 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.[3]

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 studied Economics and obtained a Master of Science degree.

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.[4] 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.[5] It was reported that part of Miliband's Scottish role was to take charge of Labour's rebuttal operation.[6]

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.[7] He spent his time at Harvard teaching economics,[8] and stayed there after September 2003 teaching a course titled "What's Left? The Politics of Social Justice".[9] He was granted access to Senator John Kerry and reported back to Brown on the Presidential hopeful's progress.[10] In January 2004 he was appointed chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers, directing the UK's long-term economic planning.[11]

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,[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15] 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[16] 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.[17]

Copenhagen Summit 2009

Miliband represented the UK at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change, 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.[18] The conference was not able to achieve a legally-binding agreement however. Miliband accused China of deliberately foiling attempts at a binding agreement for its own ends, though China explicitly denied this, accusing British politicians of engaging in "political scheme".[19]

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.[20]

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
IncumbentHarriet Harman (pro tempore)
WebsiteOfficial website

Campaign

On 14 May 2010, 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.[21] He launched his campaign back at his alma mater, the LSE, which holds strong family history ties[22], 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 representing the UK in the European Parliament[23].

He won the election, the result of which was announced on the 25th September 2010, after third and fourth preferences votes were counted, beating his brother by 1.3%[24].

Leader of the Opposition

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.[25] Miliband is also the first Jewish leader of the Labour Party.[26]

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.[27] [28]

His previous partner was former Blair aide Liz Lloyd, who went to school in Guildford with his former Cabinet colleague James Purnell[29][30]. At the end of July 1998 it was reported that they had split up.[31]

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."[32]

References

  1. ^ Ed Miliband: Labour leader's 2010 conference speech in full, BBC News, 28 September 2010
  2. ^ Josephs, Bernard (22 December 2006). "David Miliband: Red to green in a generation". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 30 November 2009. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Benn, Tony (1995). The Benn Diaries. Arrow. ISBN 978-0099634119.
  4. ^ The Scotsman, 6 April 1999, p. 1
  5. ^ The Scotsman, 8 April 1999, p. 11
  6. ^ The Scotsman, 23 April 1999., p. 13
  7. ^ Fraser Nelson, "Brown confirms adviser's sojourn in Harvard", Scotsman, 26 July 2002, p. 9.
  8. ^ Jim Pickard (25 September 2010). "Profile: Ed Miliband". The Financial Times. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  9. ^ Richard Adams, "City diary", The Guardian, 30 September 2003, p. 19.
  10. ^ The Scotsman, 6 March 2004, p. 12
  11. ^ Andrew Grice, "Brown shuffles advisers to prepare for Balls' departure", The Independent, 10 January 2004, p. 2.
  12. ^ Yorkshire Post, 26 March 2005
  13. ^ Doncaster Free Press, 14 April 2005
  14. ^ "At-a-glance: Tony Blair reshuffle". BBC News. 5 May 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  15. ^ "Brown unveils huge Cabinet revamp". BBC News. 28 June 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  16. ^ Parkinson, Justin (3 October 2008). "As it happened: Brown reshuffle". BBC News. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  17. ^ "Tougher climate target unveiled". BBC News. 16 October 2008. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  18. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-climate-change-accord
  19. ^ China rejects UK claims it hindered Copenhagen talks, BBC, 22 December 2009
  20. ^ "MPs' expenses: The saints". Telegraph. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  21. ^ "Ed Miliband to take on brother David in leader battle". BBC News. 16 May 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  22. ^ "Ed Miliband launches leadership battle with Living Wage campaign". Camden New Journal.
  23. ^ http://www.labourlist.org/ed-milibands-plp-support---running-totals
  24. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11412031
  25. ^ "Victorious Ed Miliband becomes youngest Labour leader since war". The Daily Record. 26 September 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  26. ^ "Miliband the first Jewish Labour leader." The Daily Mail. 29 September 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  27. ^ The Independent on Sunday, 7 June 2009
  28. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11433642
  29. ^ The Independent, 14 August 1997, p. 5
  30. ^ The Guardian, 31 December 1997, p. 19
  31. ^ Jasper Gerard, "Separate lives", The Times, 29 July 1998, p. 18.
  32. ^ "Ed Miliband: I don't believe in God". The Daily Telegraph. 29 September 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Doncaster North
2005–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for the Cabinet Office
2007–2008 		Succeeded by
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
2007–2008
Preceded by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
2008–2010 		Succeeded by
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 Leader of the Labour Party
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