Ed Miliband

(1969-)

Edward Samuel Miliband (born December 24, 1969) is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005 and served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010, first as the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and then as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He is of Polish Jewish descent, son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband and is the younger brother of David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary. Together the two were the first siblings to sit in Cabinet simultaneously since Edward, Lord Stanley and his brother Oliver in 1938.

After graduating from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Miliband became a Labour Party researcher and rose to become one of Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidants, being appointed Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers. Miliband was elected Labour Member of Parliament for the South Yorkshire constituency of Doncaster North in the 2005 general election. As Prime Minister, Brown appointed Miliband as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office in his first Cabinet on June 28, 2007. Miliband subsequently served as Secretary of State at the newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change from October 3, 2008 to May 11, 2010.

On May 14, 2010, Miliband announced that he would stand as a candidate for the Leadership of the Labour Party following the resignation of Gordon Brown. The other contenders for the leadership are Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, Diane Abbott, and Ed’s brother David Miliband. Despite being from the same family, Ed has traditionally aligned with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while David is a close confidant of former Prime Minister Tony Blair. The result of the contest will be announced on September 25, 2010, the day before the start of the 2010 Labour Party Conference in Manchester.

Source: Wikipedia

Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Christian Guthier.