Ed Miliband facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ed Miliband
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Official portrait, 2024
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| Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 5 July 2024 |
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| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Claire Coutinho | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 September 2010 – 8 May 2015 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | David Cameron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Harriet Harman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Harriet Harman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 September 2010 – 8 May 2015 |
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| Deputy | Harriet Harman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jeremy Corbyn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of Parliament for Doncaster North |
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| Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Kevin Hughes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Majority | 9,216 (29.5%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
Edward Samuel Miliband
24 December 1969 London, England |
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| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse |
Justine Thornton
(m. 2011) |
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| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parents | Ralph Miliband Marion Kozak |
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| Relatives | David Miliband (brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA) London School of Economics (MSc) |
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| Signature |  |
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Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition between 2010 and 2015. Alongside his brother, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Miliband was born in the Fitzrovia district of Central London to Polish Jewish immigrants Marion Kozak and Ralph Miliband, a Marxist intellectual and native of Brussels who fled Belgium during World War II. He graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford and later from the London School of Economics. Miliband became first a television journalist, then a Labour Party researcher and a visiting scholar at Harvard University, before rising to become one of Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidants and chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers. He was elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and Prime Minister Tony Blair made him Minister for the Third Sector in May 2006. When Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, he appointed Miliband Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Miliband was subsequently promoted to the new post of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, a position he held from 2008 to 2010.
After the Labour Party was defeated at the 2010 general election, Brown resigned as Leader of the Labour Party; in September 2010, Miliband was elected to replace him. His tenure as Labour leader was characterised by a leftward shift in his party's policies under the "One Nation Labour" branding, and by opposition to the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's cuts to the public sector. Miliband also abolished the electoral college system to elect the leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party, and replaced it with a "one member, one vote" system in 2014. He led his party into several elections, including the 2014 European Parliament election.
Following Labour's defeat by the Conservative Party at the 2015 general election, Miliband resigned as leader on 8 May 2015. He was succeeded following a leadership election by Jeremy Corbyn. In 2020, Keir Starmer appointed Miliband Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero. Following Labour's landslide victory in the 2024 general election, Miliband was appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero by Starmer.
Contents
Early life and education
Born in University College Hospital in Fitzrovia, London, Miliband is the younger son of immigrant parents. His mother, Marion Kozak, a human rights campaigner and early CND member, is a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust thanks to being protected by Catholic Poles. His father, Ralph Miliband, was a Belgian-born Polish Jewish Marxist academic whose father fled with him to England during the Second World War. The family lived on Edis Street in Primrose Hill, London. His elder brother, David Miliband, still owns the house as of 2010.
Ralph Miliband left his academic post at the London School of Economics in 1972 to take up a chair at the University of Leeds as a professor of Politics. His family moved to Leeds with him in 1973; Miliband attended Featherbank Infant School in Horsforth between 1974 and 1977, during which time he became a fan of Leeds United.
Owing to his father's later employment as a roving teacher, Miliband spent two spells living in Boston, Massachusetts, one year when he was seven and one middle school term when he was twelve. Miliband remembered his time in the US as some of his happiest, during which he became a fan of American culture, watching Dallas and following the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots.
Between 1978 and 1981, Ed Miliband attended Primrose Hill Primary School, near Primrose Hill, in Camden and then from 1981 to 1989, Haverstock Comprehensive School in Chalk Farm. He learned to play the violin while at school, and as a teenager, he reviewed films and plays on LBC Radio's Young London programme as one of its fortnightly "Three O'Clock Reviewers". After completing his O-levels, he worked as an intern to family friend Tony Benn, the MP for Chesterfield.
In 1989, Miliband gained four A Levels—in Mathematics (A), English (A), Further Mathematics (B) and Physics (B)—and then read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In his first year, he was elected JCR President, leading a student campaign against a rise in rent charges. In his second year he dropped philosophy, and was awarded an upper second class Bachelor of Arts degree. He went on to graduate from the London School of Economics with a Master of Science in Economics.
Early political career
Special Adviser
In 1992, after graduating from the University of Oxford, Miliband began his working career in the media as a researcher to co-presenter Andrew Rawnsley in the Channel 4 show A Week in Politics. In 1993, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Harriet Harman approached Rawnsley to recruit Miliband as her policy researcher and speechwriter. At the time, Yvette Cooper also worked for Harman as part of Labour's Shadow Treasury team.
In 1994, when Harriet Harman was moved by the newly elected Labour Leader Tony Blair to become Shadow Secretary of State for Employment, Miliband stayed on in the Shadow Treasury team and was promoted to work for Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown. In 1995, with encouragement from Gordon Brown, Miliband took time out from his job to study at the London School of Economics, where he obtained a master's degree in economics. After Labour's 1997 landslide victory, Miliband was appointed as a special adviser to Chancellor Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2002.
Harvard
On 25 July 2002, it was announced that Miliband would take a 12-month unpaid sabbatical from HM Treasury to be a visiting scholar at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University for two semesters. He spent his time at Harvard teaching economics, and stayed there after September 2003 for an additional semester teaching a course titled "What's Left? The Politics of Social Justice". During this time, he was granted "access" to Senator John Kerry and reported to Brown on the presidential hopeful's progress. After Miliband returned to the UK in January 2004 Gordon Brown appointed him Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers as a replacement for Ed Balls, with specific responsibility for directing the UK's long-term economic planning.
Parliament
In early 2005, Miliband resigned his advisory role to HM Treasury to stand for election. Kevin Hughes, then the Labour MP for Doncaster North, announced in February of that year that he would be standing down at the next election due to being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Miliband applied for selection to be the candidate in the safe Labour seat and won, beating off a close challenge from Michael Dugher, then a SPAD to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.
Gordon Brown visited Doncaster North during the general election campaign to support his former adviser. Miliband was elected on 5 May 2005, with 55.5% of the vote and a majority of 12,656. He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 23 May, responding to comments made by future Speaker John Bercow. In Blair's frontbench reshuffle in May 2006, he was made Minister for the Third Sector, with responsibility for voluntary and charity organisations.
Cabinet
On 28 June 2007, the day after 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, being promoted to the cabinet. This meant that he and his brother, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, became the first brothers to serve in a British cabinet since Edward and Oliver Stanley in 1938. He was additionally given the task of drafting Labour's manifesto for the 2010 general election.
On 3 October 2008, Miliband was promoted to become 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.
In March 2009, while Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Miliband attended the UK premiere of climate change film The Age of Stupid, where he was ambushed by actor Pete Postlethwaite, who threatened to return his OBE and vote for any party other than Labour if the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station were to be given the go-ahead by the government. A month later, Miliband announced to the House of Commons a change to the government's policy on coal-fired power stations, saying that any potential new coal-fired power stations would be unable to receive government consent unless they could demonstrate that they would be able to effectively capture and bury 25% of the emissions they produce immediately, with a view to seeing that rise to 100% of emissions by 2025. This, a government source told the Guardian, effectively represented "a complete rewrite of UK energy policy for the future".
Miliband represented the UK at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, from which emerged a global commitment to provide an additional US$10 billion a year to fight the effects of climate change, with an additional $100 billion a year provided by 2020. The conference was not able to achieve a legally binding agreement. Miliband accused China of deliberately foiling attempts at a binding agreement; China explicitly denied this, accusing British politicians of engaging in a "political scheme".
During the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, Miliband was named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" of the scandal, due to his claiming one of the lowest amounts of expenses in the House of Commons and submitting no claims that later had to be paid back.
Leadership of the Labour Party
Leadership election
Following the formation of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government on 11 May 2010, Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party with immediate effect. Deputy Leader Harriet Harman took over as Acting Leader and became Leader of the Opposition. On 14 May, Miliband announced that he would stand as a candidate in the forthcoming leadership election. He launched his campaign during a speech given at a Fabian Society conference and was nominated by 62 fellow Labour MPs. The other candidates were left-wing backbencher Diane Abbott, Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham and Miliband's elder brother, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
On 23 May, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock announced that he would endorse Ed Miliband's campaign, 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 the younger Miliband included Tony Benn and former deputy leaders Roy Hattersley and Margaret Beckett. By 9 June, the deadline for entry into the leadership election, Miliband had been nominated by just over 24% of the Parliamentary Labour Party, double the threshold. By September, Miliband had received the support of six trade unions, including both Unite and UNISON, 151 of 650 Constituency Labour Parties, three affiliated socialist societies, and half of Labour MEPs.
Miliband subsequently won the election, the result of which was announced on 25 September 2010, after second, third and fourth preferences votes were counted, achieving the support of 50.654% of the electoral college, defeating his brother by 1.3%. In the fourth and final stage of the redistribution of votes after three candidates had been eliminated, Ed Miliband led in the trade unions and affiliated organisations section of the electoral college (19.93% of the total to David's 13.40%), but in both the MPs and MEPs section (15.52% to 17.81%), and Constituency Labour Party section (15.20% to 18.14%), came second. In the final round, Ed Miliband won with a total of 175,519 votes to David's 147,220 votes.
Leader of the Opposition
Miliband's tenure as Labour leader was characterised by a leftward shift in his party's policies under the "One Nation Labour" branding which replaced the "New Labour" branding, and by opposition to the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's cuts to the public sector. Miliband also abolished the electoral college system to elect the leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party, and replaced it with a "one member, one vote" system in 2014.
Shadow Cabinet
The first election to the Shadow Cabinet that took place under Miliband's leadership was on 7 October 2010. Ending days of speculation, David Miliband announced that he would not seek election to the Shadow Cabinet on 29 September, the day nominations closed, saying he wanted to avoid "constant comparison" with his brother Ed. The three other defeated candidates for the Labour leadership all stood in the election, though Diane Abbott failed to win enough votes to gain a place.
Following the election, Miliband unveiled his Shadow Cabinet on 8 October 2010. Among others, he appointed Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Yvette Cooper was chosen as Shadow Foreign Secretary, and both defeated Labour leadership candidates Ed Balls and Andy Burnham were given senior roles, becoming Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Education Secretary respectively. Burnham was also given responsibility for overseeing Labour's election co-ordination.
Sadiq Khan, who managed Miliband's successful leadership campaign, was appointed Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor, and continuing Deputy Leader Harriet Harman continued to shadow Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, as well as being made Shadow International Development Secretary. Alan Johnson would later resign, stepping down for "personal reasons" on 20 January 2011, necessitating Miliband's first reshuffle, in which he made Balls Shadow Chancellor, Cooper Shadow Home Secretary and Douglas Alexander Shadow Foreign Secretary.
Election results and resignation
Miliband's first electoral tests as Labour Leader came in the elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and various councils across England, excluding London, on 5 May 2011. The results for Labour were described as a "mixed bag", with the party performing well in Wales – falling just one seat short of an overall majority and forming the next Welsh Government on its own – and making large gains from the Liberal Democrats in northern councils, including Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
Miliband launched Labour's campaign for the 2012 local elections with a speech in Birmingham, accusing the coalition government of "betrayal", and claiming that it "lacked the values" that Britain needed. The Labour results were described as a success, with the party building on its performance the previous year in the north of England and Wales, consolidating its position in northern cities and winning control of places such as Cardiff and Swansea. Labour performed well in the Midlands and South of England, winning control of councils including Birmingham, Norwich, Plymouth and Southampton. Labour was less successful in Scotland than England and Wales, but retained control of Glasgow despite predictions it would not. Overall, Labour gained over 800 councillors and control of 22 councils.
In April 2013, Miliband pledged ahead of the upcoming county elections that Labour would change planning laws to give local authorities greater authority to decide what shops can open in their high streets. He also said that Labour would introduce more strenuous laws relating to pay-day lenders and betting shops. Labour subsequently gained nearly 300 councillors, as well as control of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire County Councils.
In May 2014, Miliband led Labour through the European Parliament elections, where the party increased its number of Members of the European Parliament from 13 to 20. Labour came second with 24.4% of the vote, finishing ahead of the Conservatives but behind UKIP. This was the first time since the 1984 that the largest opposition party had failed to win the most seats in European elections. On the same day, Labour polled ahead of all other parties at the local elections, winning 31% of the vote and taking control of six additional councils.
On 30 March 2015, a general election was called for 7 May. Miliband began his campaign by launching a "manifesto for business", stating that only by voting Labour would the UK's position within the European Union be secure. Miliband subsequently unveiled five pledges at a rally in Birmingham which would form the focus of a future Labour government, specifically identifying policies on deficit reduction, living standards, the NHS, immigration controls and tuition fees. He included an additional pledge on housing and rent on 27 April. On 14 April, Labour launched its full manifesto, which Miliband said was fully funded and would require no additional borrowing. During this time an online campaign began known as Milifandom.
Miliband was portrayed during Labour's 2015 election campaign as being genuine in his desire to improve the lives of working people and to display progression from New Labour, but was unable to defeat interpretations of him as being ineffectual, or even cartoonish in nature. Miliband insisted that Cameron should debate him one on one as part of a televised election broadcast in order to highlight differences in policies between the two major parties, but this was never going to happen, with the pair instead being interviewed separately by Jeremy Paxman as part of the first major televised political broadcast of the election involving multiple parties.
Despite opinion polls leading up to the general election predicting a tight result, Labour decisively lost the 7 May general election to the Conservatives. Although gaining 22 seats, Labour lost all but one of its MPs in Scotland and ended up with a net loss of 26 seats, failing to win a number of key marginal seats that it had expected to win comfortably. After being returned as MP for Doncaster North, Miliband stated that it had been a "difficult and disappointing" night for Labour. Following Cameron's success in forming a majority government, Miliband resigned as Leader of the Labour Party on 8 May, with Harman becoming acting leader while a leadership election was initiated. Jeremy Corbyn succeeded Miliband as leader.
Post-leadership
Backbencher
As a backbencher, Miliband spoke about the need to tackle inequality and in favour of the Paris climate change agreement. In May 2016, he appeared on the BBC's Question Time, speaking in favour of Remain in the UK's EU referendum and he subsequently campaigned for a Remain vote.
In the aftermath of the referendum result, Miliband said that, although he had supported Jeremy Corbyn since his election as leader, he had "reluctantly reached the conclusion his position [was] untenable", calling for Corbyn to step down in June 2016. In the ensuing contest, Miliband supported leadership challenger Owen Smith. Miliband later admitted that he was "clearly wrong" to call for Corbyn's resignation. In September 2016, Miliband joined the editorial board of The Political Quarterly journal, an unremunerated role.
Renewing his previous stance on the issue in 2011, Miliband criticised Rupert Murdoch's bid to takeover telecommunications company Sky in December 2016, subsequently supporting an inquiry by Ofcom.
At the snap 2017 general election, Miliband was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 60.8% and an increased majority of 14,024.
At the 2019 general election, Miliband was again re-elected, seeing his vote share decrease to 38.7% and his majority cut to 2,370. Following the election, it was announced that Miliband would sit on a panel of party figures to overview and investigate the electoral failure.
Return to Shadow Cabinet
On 6 April 2020, Keir Starmer appointed Miliband to his Shadow Cabinet, after winning the contest to become leader of the Labour Party two days before. Miliband assumed the role of Shadow Business Secretary in the new cabinet.
In September 2020, Miliband faced Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a debate on the UK Internal Market Bill, in a speech accusing him of "legislative hooliganism".
On 27 October 2021, Miliband took Prime Minister's Questions following the October 2021 budget on behalf of Keir Starmer, who had contracted COVID-19.
Miliband's re-appointment to the cabinet also led to the New Statesman naming him the twenty-first most influential British left-wing figure of 2023.
Return to government
Following Labour's landslide victory in the 2024 general election, Miliband was appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero by Starmer. He was among several ministers under Blair and Brown to be appointed to Starmer's cabinet.
Other works
In June 2017, Miliband guest-presented Jeremy Vine's BBC Radio 2 show.
Miliband co-hosts a popular podcast, entitled Reasons to be Cheerful, with radio presenter Geoff Lloyd. In November 2017, Miliband and Lloyd appeared as joint guests on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.
Personal life
Miliband is married to Justine Thornton, a High Court Judge. The couple met in 2002 and lived together in north London before becoming engaged in March 2010 and married in May 2011. They have two sons, Daniel, born 2009, and Samuel, born 2010.
Miliband is of Jewish heritage — the first ethnically Jewish leader of the Labour Party — and describes himself as a Jewish atheist. After marrying Thornton in a civil ceremony on 27 May 2011, he paid tribute to his Jewish heritage by following the tradition of breaking a glass. In 2012, Miliband wrote, "Like many others from Holocaust families, I have a paradoxical relationship with this history. On one level I feel intimately connected with it – this happened to my parents and grandparents. On another, it feels like a totally different world."
See also
In Spanish: Ed Miliband para niños In Spanish: Ed Miliband para niños
