Ed Miliband tipped to win Labour leadership race

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By Bob Roberts; Jason Beattie 25/09/2010



Ed Miliband has pipped his brother David to be next Labour leader, senior party sources predicted last night.
Voting ended on Wednesday and there is a growing belief that Ed and not older brother David will be named as Gordon Brown's successor today.

Sources say early favourite David's support from ex-Business Minister Peter Mandelson may have backfired, pushing the rank-and-file into Ed's camp.

Ed is now the bookies' favourite, with his odds on victory having shortened from 33-1 to 1/2. David is now 6/4 to become leader.

The mood in David's camp was despondent yesterday while his younger brother began appointing people to key positions.

one MP said the key moment in the close race came when Lord Mandelson had endorsed David and warned against the destruction of New Labour under a new leader. She said there was such fury at the intervention by Lord Mandelson, who many blame for losing the last election and then cashing on on Labour troubles in a book, that MPs and party activists switched to Ed.

Ed, 40, is thought to have scored heavily among union members, which make up onethird of the vote.
And he is believed to be only four or five percentage points behind David, 45, among MPs and Labour Party members.
one member of the Ed campaign team said: "The movement has all been towards us in the last few days of voting. The indications we have been getting are far better than expected."

A David Miliband supporter said: "We remain quietly confident. The support amongst MPs and from constituencies has remained solid. We think we have enough in the bag."

SOURCE: MIRROR

 

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Ed Miliband is the new leader of the Labour Party.

 

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Red Ed: I don't do God, I don't even believe in Him (but I WILL get married and I'm embarrassed my name isn't on child's birth certificate)

Ed Miliband has become the latest Labour leader to say he does not believe in God.
The new party leader followed the example of Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot in declaring his lack of faith.
‘I don’t believe in God personally but I have great respect for those people who do,’ he told Radio Five Live.
‘Different people have different religious views in this country. The great thing is that we are all, whether we have faith or not, by and large very tolerant of people whatever their particular view.’
Mr Miliband announced his atheism despite making much of his family’s Jewish origins in his keynote speech at the party conference and citing his parents’ escape from Nazi-occupied Europe to Britain as the reason for his involvement in politics.
With dwindling congregations across the country, his laissez-faire attitude to religion might play well with today’s faithless youth.
However, political leaders who admitted a lack of faith have found Number 10 Downing Street beyond their reach.
Both Mr Kinnock and Mr Foot – an associate of the National Secular Society – foundered at the polls.
Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, once said: ‘We don’t do God’ during an interview with Vanity Fair.
However Mr Blair, who stormed to three election victories, was an avowed Christian who even prayed with his ally, President George W Bush. Mr Blair converted to Catholicism on leaving Number 10.
In a separate interview, Mr Miliband admitted that he is ‘very embarrassed’ about failing to register as the father of his child.
He confessed he had blundered by not going to his register office to place his name on the birth certificate of his son Daniel, now 16 months old.


Mr Miliband, 40, who has yet to marry his partner Justine Thornton, told ITV’s Daybreak programme: ‘I’m really embarrassed about this.
‘What happens is if you are partners, rather than married – as we found out after the event – is that when Justine went to register Daniel, she came back and said, “You will never believe it, I can’t register you. You have got to go along to the council offices and make sure you do it”. I am really embarrassed I haven’t.’
Mr Miliband pledged to register as Daniel’s father when the couple’s second child, due in November, is born.
‘We have got a second one on the way and I am going to make sure I do two for the price of one.’
He also said that he and Miss Thornton would marry ‘eventually’.
But asked whether he wanted to propose on live TV, he said: ‘I think it’s better to do it in person, really. I don’t think it would exactly bring out my romantic side to propose on Daybreak, but thanks for the offer anyway.’
Mr Miliband faced questions about his private life during a media blitz following his maiden speech as leader at the party conference in Manchester.
This and the fallout of his victory over older brother David dominated his interviews despite his attempts to focus more on policy and his vision for the party.
Ed Miliband is also desperate to shake off his 'Red Ed' tag and claims he is too Left-wing and yesterday enraged the unions by declaring he would not back 'waves of irresponsible strikes'.
His personal set-up has caused consternation since he became the first major political leader in British history not to be married to the mother of his children.
She met Ed Miliband at a party in 2004, when he was still a backroom political adviser and yet to be selected to fight a seat for Labour in the 2005 general election.
She was at the new leader's side as he delivered his maiden speech - although she eschewed the now traditional move to appear on stage and instead just walked in and out of the conference hall with the politician.
He insisted on Daybreak that voters were 'pretty relaxed' over whether or not politicians were married, and said that the important issue was whether a couple provided a stable home for their children.
He said: 'I have a huge belief in the importance of stable family and I think it is so important to say that. What really matters to me is Justine and Daniel and the second son that we have on the way.
'Stable families come in different forms. We happen not to be married. We will get married eventually, but I think it is really important to say that different people can provide stability to their kids - which is the thing that really matters - and to themselves in different ways.'
'I don't think they care one way or the other what people do in their lives, as long as they show responsibility to each other.
'That's the most important thing. I am someone who is responsible and someone who is very, very close to my family.'
He added: 'My love for Justine is very profound and we are a very close unit and we are very much looking forward to the birth of our second child.'