Eddie Miliband takes over Labour leadership in UK

Britain’s opposition Labour Party  has elected Ed Miliband as its new leader, choosing him by a knife-edge margin over his better-known older brother, former foreign secretary David Miliband.

The 40-year-old former climate change  minister won by 50.65 percent to 49.35 percent for David, who had been the favourite until the last days of the four-month contest to replace Gordon Brown.

Although David won the majority of votes of lawmakers and party members in the three-way ballot, Ed secured victory with support from the trade unions, who provide most of Labour’s funding.

In his acceptance speech, Miliband promised to unite the centre-left party after the divisions that characterised Labour’s 13 years in power, caused by the bitter rivalry between former premiers Tony Blair and Brown.

He has a tough battle to move past the party’s heavy defeat in May elections, which cost Brown his job as leader.

And he pledged to take the fight to Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition and offer an alternative to its plans for slashing public spending quickly to tackle a record deficit.

“Today’s election turns the page because a new generation has stepped forward to serve our party, and in time I hope to serve our country. Today the work of the new generation begins,” Miliband said.

“I am proud of the leadership of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown but we lost the election, and we lost it badly.

“And my message to the country is this — I know we lost trust, I know we lost touch, I know we need to change.”

Miliband’s campaign had reached out to Labour’s traditional working-class supporters, and his victory was greeted with huge cheers from delegates gathered for the result in Manchester, northwest England.

David Miliband jumped to his feet and grabbed his brother in an emotional embrace.

Ed Miliband responded in his speech, saying: “David, I love you so much as a brother and I have extraordinary respect for the campaign that you ran… we all know how much you have to offer this country in the future.”

Speaking afterwards, David Miliband said he was “genuinely delighted for him, because if I can’t win, then he should lead the party”.

Both men refused to say whether David would take a job under his brother.

Ed Miliband’s election might reinvigorate — or doom the party’s chances of power, newspapers said Sunday.

A commentator for the Sunday Telegraph suggested that in backing a return to core Labour values, the party had rejected an opportunity to win back power.

“You cannot play to your party’s gallery so shamelessly and expect to win the broader mandate required in a general election. What an absolute disaster for Labour,” he wrote.

The Independent warned he must prove “he deserves a job handed to him by a trade union stitch-up”.

The Sunday Times warned Labour lost May’s election because its then leader, Gordon Brown, “was delusional about the need to put the public finances back into shape and who tried to conceal the economic reality, adding the new leader must be “straight” with voters.

,But Miliband promised in an article in the Sunday Telegraph to look out for the “squeezed” middle classes.

And the left-wing Observer newspaper said it was “facile” to label Miliband a reactionary leftist. Instead, it said he offered a welcome alternative to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s economic policies.

Ed Miliband only became a member of parliament in 2005 and was the energy and climate change secretary in the last government.

One of his biggest challenges now is how to respond to major spending cuts planned by Cameron’s coalition, and whether to support trade union plans for coordinated strike action in response.

Miliband said: “We must reduce the deficit but I believe we must do so much more than that to have an economy working in the interests of the hard-working people of this country.”

He will set out his vision Tuesday in a speech to the party’s annual conference, which begins here Sunday.

Cameron congratulated Miliband, but Conservative party chair Sayeeda Warsi said Labour appeared to be abandoning the centre ground, with their new leader “put into power by union votes”.

Several conservative newspapers also dubbed Miliband “Red Ed” and said he would abandon Blair’s centrist approach and sweep Labour to the left.

However, party figures said his election was a chance for unity, including former minister Tessa Jowell, who had backed David Miliband’s campaign.

“I’m very encouraged by his drive for uniting the party, bringing everyone together, and there was a palpable will from everyone in the conference hall for everyone to do that,” she told AFP.

Among the delegates, Chris Hill, an 18-year-old student, added: “People say David Miliband was the most prime ministerial of the candidates but I think Ed will grow into the role…. He talks a language that people can understand.”

Three other candidates stood in the race but were eliminated over several rounds of voting.
Source: AFP