'Nick, I can't hold on any longer':

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'Nick, I can't hold on any longer': Gordon Brown's extraordinary phone call
with Nick Clegg just minutes before he resigned


Gordon Brown told Nick Clegg that he could 'not hold on any longer' as Prime Minister because both the Queen and the country expected him to resign, it emerged today. In an extraordinary phonecall with the Lib Dem leader just minutes before he announced he was standing down, Gordon Brown begged the Lib Dem leader to hurry up and finish his talks with the Tories because he had to go to the Palace. 'Nick, Nick. I can't hold on any longer. Nick. I've got to go to the palace,' the Prime Minister was overheard to say. 'The country expects me to do that. I have to go. The Queen expects me to go. I can't hold on any longer.'


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It’s the telephone call that signals Brown’s tumultuous three years as an unelected Prime Minister is at an end. Poignantly, instead of official portraits from the government art collection, he chose to decorate his office with more personal works of art - by his two young sons. Brown’s tense body language indicates that the call is going badly. As his fate is finally confirmed, the brooding presence of a bespectacled Alastair Campbell looms over him

The incredible details of Mr Brown's final few hours in power were described by the photographer who joined him in the Cabinet 'war room' in Downing Street. The Prime Minster was surrounded by his inner circle including Ed Balls, Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson as they waited to hear back from Mr Clegg to say the game was up. According to Martin Argles, the atmosphere before Mr Brown announced his resignation was 'surprisingly light-hearted but very, very tense'. 'They were all making jokes, repeating anecdotes about things that had happened, incidents on international visits such as mistaking diplomats for other people,' the Guardian photographer recalled.



The final moments in the bunker as Gordon Brown
and Labour allies say farewell to No10


These are the extraordinary and poignant images of Gordon Brown’s final hours deep in his Downing Street bunker. But they don’t just record the death throes of the political regime that entered Downing Street 13 years ago promising to transform Britain. They provide a fascinating insight into the inner sanctum of the Scottish son of the manse. There are few trappings of high office. There are no grand portraits, but there are plasma TV screens in every room - a testament to New Labour’s obsession with 24-hour news managemen



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The tension in the room is palpable. A hunched Gordon Brown is waiting for the phone call from Nick Clegg that will determine whether his audacious power-sharing offer is acceptable. Sue Nye, his longest-serving adviser, is sitting on his left. Ed Balls, Schools Secretary and his preferred successor, is standing next to him. Alastair Campbell, a former alcoholic, is drinking water



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Gallows humour? Once, they were sworn enemies. But Lord Mandelson - who Brown never forgave for backing Tony Blair in the 1994 leadership contest - shares a joke just before they draft the resignation statement. Alastair Campbell, assumed to be the author of the damaging jibe that Brown was ‘psychologically flawed’, joins in the laughter with International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander and Ed Balls

The photographs reveal a beleaguered Prime Minister just as he learns his gamble of a deal with the Lib Dems has failed. The heartbreak that the rebuff has caused is clear. And the conclusive proof of the extent to which Brown had come to rely on the counsel of two men who were once his bitterest political foes - Lord Mandelson and the spin doctor Alastair Campbell - is all too apparent. There is raw emotion as Brown bids farewell to his loyal civil servants. Tears are shed by men and women. And we see the proud father with his delightful young sons, who will do so much to soften the blow of his enforced departure from No10, having never won a General Election as prime minister.



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Here is the human side of Brown that he had resolutely refused to let us see before. The pride in his sons John and Fraser is beyond question. It’s proof, if it were needed, that for Brown there is life after politics. His wife Sarah is clearly struggling to contain her emotions. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary and a former Lib Dem who was a key figure in the negotiations with Clegg, is behind Lord Mandelson and Campbell as they join in the warm applause for Brown as he says farewell for the last time

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Despair and despondency hits as the news sinks in that New Labour is finished. An unusually emotional Brown is embraced by a member of his civil service team, while others sink their heads in defeat. Brown has only hours left before he leaves Downing Street for the last time. Yes, the tears are flowing . . .



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Is this the hardest letter Brown has ever had to write? It’s the one welcoming David Cameron to No10. Brown and Cameron detest each other. It’s why, presumably, Alastair Campbell, who choreographed the dawn of New Labour, is there to help him sign away its end. Brown's closest political confidants Ed Balls and Douglas Alexander look on



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Even the packing boxes bear all the hallmarks of New Labour’s addiction to spin. Note the cunning positioning of a photograph of African children, a souvenir from a grateful member of the Armed Forces and presumably one of his sons’ baby books. This has spinmeister Lord Mandelson’s fingerprints all over it



OUT goes the Brown boys' Wendy house from No10 and IN come the builders as the Camerons arrive Just days earlier John and Fraser Brown had been playing in their favourite green Wendy house with its bright yellow doors. Yesterday it was carefully taken apart and placed on the back of a removals lorry along with the rest of the Brown family belongings. At almost exactly the same time, a truck from a building services company which specialises in building partition walls arrived in Downing Street as the Camerons moved their family in.



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The Brown boys' Wendy house is removed from Downing Street and put in a removals truck

It was only at 7.19pm on Tuesday night that Gordon Brown finally quit No10. At 8.40pm David and Samantha Cameron were approaching the door he and his wife Sarah had walked out of just over an hour and a half earlier. They had so little time to pack their things that some belongings from No10 were thrust into black bin bags and transferred from a people carrier and a van into the back of the removals truck. Yesterday morning a lorry from CCF Ltd, a firm which says it 'delivers interior design solutions' and builds partition walls, drove up Downing Street. With the Cameron's two children and another on the way, it suggests they may be giving up their Notting Hill home and moving into No10 with the builders possibly creating a nursery.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown was today contemplating life outside frontline politics for the first time in 13 years after he finally succumbed to the inevitable and quit as Prime Minister.

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The lorry from CCF building services arrives in Downing Street as the removals truck leaves The Browns flew to Scotland with his family late Tuesday night after announcing on the steps of Downing Street that he was resigning. Flanked by his wife Sarah, his voice cracking with emotion and close to tears, the Labour leader told the nation it had been a 'privilege to serve' and do a job he loved. For the first time ever, his children John, six, and Fraser, three, appeared beside him in public and the family posed together in touching scenes before walking away hand-in-hand. Mr Brown left Downing Street for the final time as Prime Minister after a dignified brief address before his staff and ranks of media, in which he acknowledged his own 'frailties'.



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Belongings from No10 are packed in black bin bags and transferred from a van into a removals lorry




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Out with the old... a policeman inspects the removal lorry at it is loaded at the back of Downing Street yesterday

In doing so, he made way for David Cameron to become Britain’s new Prime Minister and the youngest to hold the top job for almost 200 years. Mr Brown said: 'My constitutional duty is to ensure that a government can be formed after last week's general election. I have informed the Queen's private secretary that it is my intention to tender my resignation to the Queen. 'If the Queen accepts, I shall advise her to invite the Leader of the Opposition to seek to form a government. I wish the next prime minister well as he makes the important choices for the future. 'Only those who have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities and its great capacity for good. 'I have been privileged to learn much about the very best in human nature and a fair amount too about its frailties - including my own.'



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The Browns' house in North Queensferry, Fife, where they travelled to from Downing Street on Tuesday night

Mr Brown said he had 'loved the job, not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony, which I do not love at all. No, I loved the job for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous, more just - truly a greater Britain.' He paid tribute to his colleagues and staff who he said had been 'friends as well as brilliant servants of the country' and then hailed the work of the armed forces. 'Now that the political season is over, let me stress that having shaken their hands and looked into their eyes, our troops represent all that is best in our country and I will never forget all those who have died in honour and whose families today live in grief.'

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He's off: Gordon Brown with his wife Sarah and two sons
as they leave for Buckingham Palace




And for the first wives... just another working day


Their husbands may be starting new jobs but for Samantha Cameron and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez it was business as usual yesterday. The wives of the Tory and Lib Dem leaders were left to meet the more practical demands of family life on the school run.


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First ladies: Samantha Cameron on the school run, left,
and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez looking tired yesterday

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Made up: Samantha greeted the press with a full face of make-up,
while Miriam braved the cameras without


Mr Clegg’s lawyer wife, 42, looked less than impressed to have been left on childcare duty as she arrived wearing a beige anorak and no make-up. In contrast, Mrs Cameron was a picture of understated glamour as she left the couple’s West London home to collect Nancy, six, and Arthur Elwen, four. The 39-year-old, who is five months pregnant, wore a knee-length wraparound maternity dress she had borrowed from a friend, a grey Joseph blazer and a pair of black Russell and Bromley patent pumps. She also clutched her trademark black Smythson handbag.

[Dua]

Who needs an armoured limo?

David Cameron strolls down Whitehall to take his seat in Parliament as Prime Minister



David Cameron eschewed the cavalcade of armoured limos that heads of state usually enjoy when he went to Parliament for the first time as prime minister this afternoon. It was a warm sunny day, so the new PM decided ditch his stuffy Jaguar and walk the few hundred yards from his new home in Downing Street to the Palace of Westminster. Just days after he worried police by getting rid of his motorbike outriders, Mr Cameron took to Whitehall with just a couple of bodyguards for protection.



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Face in the crowdt: David Cameron walks with tourists and businessmen
to the Commons today as Parliament reconvened after the Election break

Carrying nothing more than a folder with some papers, he was almost lost in the throng of tourists.
It isn't the first time the new Prime Minister has decided to walk to appointments - last week he hoofed over to the DTI to welcome Vince Cable to his new job as Business Secretary. The move by the new Prime Minister was not officially announced, but No.10 sources said it was an 'ostentation' to be sped through the traffic by police escort. Mr Cameron's decision was questioned by security experts and was in sharp contrast to the previous Labour administration. Gordon Brown - and Tony Blair before him - had been escorted by up to six motorcycle outriders who swept him through traffic, holding up other drivers and buses in an American-style motorcade.



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Free and open: The new Prime Minister's security was kept to an absolute minimum
as he strolled down Whitehall before the start of the new Parliament


Mr Cameron and Nick Clegg sat side-by-side as the new coalition Government took its place in the House of Commons for the first time. The re-shaped political landscape was on physical display as Labour MPs made way for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats after 13 years in power. More than a third of MPs - 226 of the new 650-seat chamber - are fresh faces in Parliament after the expenses scandal prompted the biggest exodus in living memory. They pressed ahead to re-elect John Bercow as their Speaker, which was waved through instead of going to a vote despite several MPs taking the highly unusual step of shouting out their descent. In an early sign of trouble ahead, Mr Cameron came under fire over his plans to make dissolution impossible unless 55 per cent of MPs vote in favour. The move was dubbed the 'Mugabe question'.



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Side-by-side: David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the House of Commons this afternoon


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Packed: The House of Commons today as it convened for the first time
since the General Election


There are growing mumblings about the prospect of five-year Parliaments, which were a key plank of the coalition deal hammered out by the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Governments can usually be toppled by a simple vote of no confidence with a majority of one but it was agreed this should change so that neither side can cut and run to force another election. It was decided a binding resolution should be brought in allowing for dissolution only when 55 per cent of MPs agree, prompting claims it could result in a 'zombie' Parliament.

Labour's Jim Sheridan asked: 'What is the criteria required to support any such move, such as the 55% the Government wish to embrace, thereby known as the Mugabe question?' Father of the House Sir Peter Tapsell said it was not a point of order for him to deal with but 'the House will have other opportunities to debate these matters'. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett also attacked the new Government, noting it had not told the Commons first before making announcements about the voting system, Lords reform, spending cuts and how to dissolve Parliament.

He told Mr Bercow: 'We look forward to you defending our interests as backbenchers from whichever party but we look forward most of all to you being able to reassert the ideas that were promoted before the last General Election that we should not be engaged in fixes; we should not have the old caballing; that we should have open, honest, forthright debate; and that parliamentarians should genuinely be able to hold this new coalition to account.'

Mr Cameron's earlier walk to the Commons from Downing Street was yet another indication that he wants to behave differently to previous Prime Ministers. The new Prime Minister - the youngest since 1812 - was applauded by his own side as he took his position on the front bench alongside his former rival and now Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg. It is the first time the Tories have been to the right of the speaker's chair since 1997 and many decades since the old Liberal Party were there. Mr Cameron has only ever sat on the Opposition benches, having entered the Commons for the first time in 2001.

The shape and dynamic of the new Commons is dramatically difference because there is no 'third party'.
The frontbench is now a mix of Tory and Lib Dem ministers in a reflection that the Government is a coalition for the first time since the Second World War. Conservative MPs are sitting behind Mr Cameron with Lib Dem backbenchers further to the left, past the main gangway on the government side. .... .....


Continue below ..

[Dua]

　


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Re-elected: John Bercow is back
as Commons Speaker



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New look: Tories and the Lib Dems now sit on the same side, occupying the Government benches. 1. Sir Ming Cambell (Lib Dem) 2. Patrick McLoughlin (Tory) 3. Sir George Young (Tory) 4. William Hague (Tory) 5. David Cameron (Tory) 6. Nick Clegg (Lib Dem) 7. Theresa May (Tory) 8. Vince Cable (Lib Dem) 9. Ken Clarke (Tory) 10. Caroline Spelman (Tory) 11. Philip Hammond (Tory) 12. Cheryl Gillan (Tory) 13. David Willetts (Tory) 14. Iain Duncan Smith (Tory) 15. Danny Alexander (Lib Dem)


Further down the Government benches, Sir Menzies Campbell, former Lib Dem leader, took the spot that used to be occupied by Labour's Dennis Skinner who was renowned for heckling the Opposition.

New Tory MP Zac Goldsmith was among the newly-elected MPs unable to find a seat who ended up standing beside the walkway near the Speaker's chair. Proceedings began with the Commons being ceremonially summoned to the House of Lords, where the Lower House was instructed to elect a speaker.
They had to be led there by a deputy to Black Rod, Lieutenant-General Sir Freddie Viggers, after he fell seriously ill in his Westminster flat this morning. Colleagues said he had had a multiple stroke.

Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg, and acting Labour leader Harriet Harman were at the head of a handful of MPs led by Yeoman Usher Ted Lloyd-Jukes to the Upper House. Electing a speaker is the only job MPs can do before they are officially sworn in. Sir Peter, the new Father of the House, kicked off the process before Mr Bercow gave a brief address. The MP said: 'It was a privilege to serve as speaker for the past 10 months and it would be an honour to serve again for this Parliament.' He pledged to defend the rights of backbenchers to hold the Government to account and to 'champion the causes dear to their hearts'. 'For better or for worse, I have become known for insisting on short questions and short answers,' he told MPs. 'Sometimes a short speech is also appropriate so I shall leave it there in order to demonstrate that once in a while at least I do practice what I preach.' Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Tory MP for Kensington, then proposed him to take the plum role again in a relatively lengthy speech.



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Down to business: Mr Cameron chairs the 'Big Society' meeting next to Kids Company charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh in the Cabinet room of 10
Downing Street earlier today

He revealed that he had not voted for the Tory in the contest last year, backing Sir George Young instead, but had been won round. 'I like many others have had the opportunity with an open mind to see the hon gentleman act as speaker over the last 10 months and I have been impressed,' he said. He hailed Mr Bercow as a 'champion of the backbenches', declaring him 'spendidly robust at intervening' and a 'modern speaker for a modern age'. The number of 'ayes' clearly outweighed his opponents but there were some shouts of 'nay' when the question was put by Sir Peter.

It is highly unusual for the Speaker to be challenged but Sir Peter pressed ahead, insisting again despite murmurs from the benches that the 'ayes have it' and refusing to call a formal division. Mr Bercow, whose wife Sally was watching from the public gallery, was then 'dragged' from the Tory backbenches to the Speaker's large green chair. He said: 'I am aware it is the greatest honour it can give to any of its members. I pray that I will justify its continued confidence. I will do all within my power to cherish its best traditions.' Critics of Mr Bercow were angry that his position had not been put to a vote. Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who this weekend had openly challenged Mr Bercow, said the issue had been 'fudged through'. 'He was voted as speaker by a block Labour vote. He needs the support of all parties in the house. He needs everybody to support him. It would have been good for him today to have a vote,' she said.


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Girl power: Harriet Harman with female Labour MPs outside Parliament today


Mr Cameron congratulated Mr Bercow on his re-appointment and joked that there were times during the Election when he was 'a little concerned about your safe return to Parliament'. 'I'm glad to see that the mostly Conservative-inclined voters of Buckingham stuck with you,' he said. 'And I hope there won't be too much family strife if I welcome the fact that similarly-inclined voters in St James ward in the London borough of Westminster did the same thing.' Mrs Bercow, who lost her bid to be a Labour councillor on May 6, laughed in the gallery at the comment. The Prime Minister then welcomed all the new MPs to the Commons and hailed the moment as a 'new era for our politics' and the 'chance for a new generation to show just how good this place can be'.


He said: 'There will be new challenges, not least with the first coalition government in 65 years. And with 232 new Members of Parliament, this will very much be a new Parliament. 'We have 72 new women MPs and 16 new MPs from black and minority ethnic backgrounds and I'm glad that my party played its part in this result. It really does look and feel different. Indeed many of us are sitting next to people that we've never sat next to before.' Mr Clegg, from his position on the front bench, smiled at the remark as MPs laughed.

Mr Cameron said the 'real tests' of the new Parliament was to rebuild public trust and make the 'right decisions'. 'It's within our gift to do this and it's our responsibility to make sure we do,' he said. 'I believe we can end the chronic short-termism of the past, we can put national interest ahead of party interest, we can work together to find solutions to the profound problems facing our nation. 'Mr Speaker-elect, you preside over a new Parliament and we should all be determined to take our country in a historic new direction.'

Harriet Harman congratulated Mr Bercow and then Mr Cameron. She told the Prime Minister: 'You have an awesome and a heavy responsibility. 'We all agree that we need strong and stable government. But we also should agree that we need strong Opposition.' To Labour cheers, she added: 'We will be a strong, effective, self-confident and determined Opposition, holding this Government to account.' The swearing in of all MPs will now start tomorrow afternoon



MPs left furious after they are denied the right to kick out Speaker Bercow (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1279400/John-Bercow-reelected-Commons-Speaker.html)

[Dua]

　
Labour Party awaits new leader announcement (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11409388)






　
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The five contenders have been
campaigning for four months





Baada ya kuwapa ujiko Liberals na Conservative chama cha Labour kitatangaza mshindi wake leo jioni mnamo saa 12:40 kwa saa za Afrika Mashariki ..... .....

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Ed Miliband is elected leader of the Labour Party


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Ed Milliband



Ed Miliband is the new Labour leader, it has been announced at a special conference in Manchester. He beat brother David by the wafer thin margin of 50.65% to 49.35% after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play. Ed Balls was third, Andy Burnham fourth and Diane Abbott last in the ballot of Labour members and trade unionists. Mr Miliband, 40, replaces acting leader Harriet Harman in the contest triggered by the resignation of Gordon Brown.

He paid tribute to each of his fellow candidates in turn and told the conference: "Today we draw a line under this contest and move forward united as a team." The shadow energy secretary appears to have benefited from a last-minute surge of support before voting in the postal ballot closed on Wednesday.
Older brother David won a majority of support from Labour's MPs at Westminster, but appears to have been defeated due to Ed's dominance among trade unions and grassroots activists in Labour's electoral college voting system. BBC political editor Nick Robinson said in the first three rounds of voting David Miliband was ahead, it was only when votes were reallocated as the other candidates were knocked out that his younger brother was pushed over the winning line.

Mr Miliband hugged David after the result was announced. In his victory speech, he vowed to unify the party, telling delegates "The Labour Party in the future must be a vehicle that doesn't just attract thousands of young people but tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people who see us as their voice in British politics today." He paid tribute to his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, but added: "We lost the election and we lost it badly. My message to the country is this: I know we lost trust, I know we lost touch, I know we need to change. "Today a new generation has taken charge of Labour, a new generation that understands the call of change."

He added: "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." Mr Miliband received a standing ovation from delegates as he made his way from the hall, with David at his side.



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Labour - have they shot themselves?

[Dua]

The Ed Miliband story



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Ed Miliband beat older brother David,
right, to the Labour leadership
　

To some extent, Ed Miliband has spent much of the first 40 years of his life in the shadow of his older, better-known brother David, the former foreign secretary. He did the same course - Philosophy, Politics and Economics - at Oxford University, at the same college, and followed David into a similar backroom role in the Labour Party, albeit on different sides of the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown divide. The two even lived in neighbouring flats in the same building for a while. They both sat in Gordon Brown's cabinet, with Ed filling the less high profile role of climate change and energy secretary. Ed used to introduce himself at meetings as "the other Miliband". His stunning victory in the Labour leadership contest may mean David will soon have to start using that line.

We can only speculate about what effect this sudden upheaval in the fraternal pecking order will have on their relationship, which they never tired of telling us during the leadership election is "close". By the end of the contest, when it became clear that it would be too close to call between the two brothers, tensions began to surface, although they avoided public rows. Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, an Ed supporter who knows both brothers well, told a Channel 4 documentary:

"David's response to Ed running has been deeply resentful." Oona King, who was at school with the Miliband brothers and remains a friend, argues that politics can tear families apart. "They can not be the same after this. I have seen it happen and I can see it happening between them." But as he prepares to take on one of the biggest, most high profile, and difficult roles in British politics, how much do we actually know about Edward Samuel Miliband?

His supporters insisted during the leadership campaign that he was more "human", less aloof than David. He is a self-confessed maths "geek" who was a secret Dallas fan as a boy - they are hardly Bobby and JR, but Ed had enough of a ruthless streak to challenge his brother for the job long thought to be his.

Marxist father

During the leadership contest, both Miliband brothers made much of the fact they went to an ordinary North London comprehensive school. And while this is true, their childhood will probably have been a little more colourful, and certainly more intellectually stimulating, than that of the average North London schoolboy. Their father, Ralph, a Polish Jew who fled the Nazi invasion of Belgium in 1940, was one of the leading Marxist theorists of his generation - and a fierce critic of the Labour Party. Their mother, Marion Kozak, is also a well-known figure on the British left. Growing up, their Primrose Hill home played host to the leading intellectuals and Labour politicians of the age, with dinner guests including Ken Livingstone and Tariq Ali. The family's basement dining room was the scene of high-minded and often heated debates between major figures on the Left.

The young Milibands were always encouraged to chip into the debate with their own opinions and, apparently, Tony Benn was even known to have given the brothers a few pointers with their homework. "[They were] very, very fresh lively, intelligent… and I must admit Ed amazed me by being able to do the Rubik's Cube... in one minute 20 seconds and, as I recall, just with one hand too," remembers socialist academic Robin Blackburn, a close friend of Ralph's. Ed recently told The Daily Mirror how he bonded with his father when he accompanied him on trips to the United States where Ralph worked as a lecturer.

Campaigning mother

But although he is sometimes said to be politically closer to Ralph than his brother, in truth the two Miliband brothers are worlds away from his brand of socialism. Although no lover of Soviet-style one-party rule or violent revolution, he had abandoned the Labour Party long before his sons were born, believing socialism could never be achieved through Parliamentary means. Ralph died in 1994, a few weeks before Tony Blair became Labour leader, but had viewed with unease his sons' part in creating what would become known as New Labour. Their mother Marion, an early CND activist and human rights campaigner, who is a leading member of the Jews for Justice for Palestinians group, and who, unlike Ralph, remained in the Labour Party, is thought to have been a greater influence on their political development. "There's no doubt that Ed got a lot of his drive from Marion and a lot of his feel for nitty-gritty grassroots politics from Marion too," says Dr Marc Stears, politics fellow at the University of Oxford.

Friends say the contest between the brothers this summer has been a huge "strain" for Marion. She has even told people it would have been much easier had they simply become academics rather than politicians. David and Ed's background helped speed their way into Labour politics - Ed spent the summer after his O-levels doing work experience for Tony Benn, then a senior Labour left-winger. Mr Benn would reward him years later by backing his leadership campaign. By their teenage years, both brothers were fully fledged campaigners for Labour. Ed was never part of the "cool" set at school, although he has joked that he did not get beaten up too often.

Student activism

Both brothers have said the experience of seeing equally bright pupils, from less privileged backgrounds, failing to reach their potential had a profound impact on their politics and outlook. The more academically gifted of the two, Ed did better than David in his A-levels, following his brother to Corpus Christi College in Oxford, where he became involved in student activism. "My best four weeks at university were when we had a rent dispute with the college," he told The Guardian in an interview (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/12/edmiliband.labour) recently.

"I wasn't particularly bookish; what really got me going was student activism, and mobilising people. It was quite a hard thing to recognise if you come from an academic family, but, if I'm honest, it's true. Politics always motivated me more than academia." At the time, he was described as being less opinionated than his brother, who had a reputation as fiercely bright but rather socially inept. After briefly working as a television journalist, Ed was taken on by current deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman, then a shadow minister, as a speech writer and researcher. His number-crunching skills soon brought him to the attention of the then shadow chancellor.

Gordon Brown "burgled him off Harriet", Charlie Whelan, Mr Brown's former spin doctor, has said.

'Not tribal'

When Labour came to power, Ed was pitched into the never-ending turf wars between the Treasury and Downing Street, coming to be seen as one of Mr Brown's key backroom allies. He gained a reputation as something of a diplomat, whose skill at defusing rows was reportedly much in demand in the escalating battle between Brownites and Blairites. It is said that Ed would often be despatched from the Brown camp to make peace with Downing Street, where David worked as head of Blair's policy unit. "I was the one who tried to bridge some of the nonsense that there was," is how he now describes his role. But he baulks at the usual description of himself as a "Brownite", claiming to be one of the least "tribal" of MPs.

In 2003, he spent a year's sabbatical at Harvard University, to study and lecture at Harvard's Centre for European Studies, before becoming an MP for the safe seat of Doncaster North in 2005. Like his brother, he belongs to the generation of Labour politicians who, until recently, had known nothing but power. He lives in Primrose Hill, the same fashionable North London district where he grew up, with partner Justine and their young son. Another son is on the way in November. Although essentially cast from the same centrist, New Labour mould, he positioned himself firmly to the left of his brother during the leadership race, campaigning for a "living wage" higher than the minimum wage and a High Pay Commission to control top salaries.

Iraq war

He has won support from the left by calling for the retention of the 50p tax rate and opposing a third runway at Heathrow Airport, and he was widely praised by green activists during his time as climate change secretary. Also, despite being credited with writing it, he was far more critical than David of Labour's 2010 election manifesto, telling his brother at one hustings: "How can you possibly say you're going to stand on every aspect of our manifesto? We lost the election." The brothers have also disagreed on Iraq - with Ed calling the 2003 invasion a "tragic error" and saying he would have voted to give weapons inspectors more time had he been an MP at the time. Responding to accusations that he was simply saying what Labour activists wanted to hear with his appeals to the left wing, Ed told a Westminster press lunch "we cannot define ourselves in opposition to our party" and argued that the "centre ground should be shaped from the left".

There were no public rows with David during the seemingly never-ending series of leadership hustings around the country, but as the contest reached its climax and it became increasingly clear that it was a straight fight between the two Milibands, tensions began to surface.

In one particularly telling exchange, David warned Labour against retreating into its left wing "comfort zone". Within minutes, Ed had responded by warning the party not to retreat into its New Labour "comfort zone". Despite being endlessly talked up by his supporters as the more affable and approachable of the two, who is more adept at working the Commons tea room as well as dealing with ordinary voters, his relaxed demeanour is said by some commentators to mask a true killer instinct. Some worry that he was schooled in the dark arts of negative briefing during his years in the Treasury. He insists the main attribute he learned from Gordon Brown was "toughness".

Union backing

Apart from having sharp enough elbows to challenge his better-known brother for Labour's top job, he has also shown chutzpah on the campaign trail. He raised eyebrows at early hustings meetings by arriving with his own band of placard-waving supporters. But while David received the backing of the New Labour establishment, including Peter Mandelson, who warned against an Ed victory, Ed successfully managed to portray himself as the "change" candidate without alienating the party's mainstream. Major figures from the party's past, such as former leader Lord Kinnock and his former deputy Lord Hattersley, were sufficiently impressed to lend him their backing. But his real coup was to secure the backing of three of the four Britain's biggest trade unions - GMB, Unison and Unite. The latter was a bitter blow to his former Treasury colleague and leadership rival Ed Balls, who had been banking on Unite's support. Unite was even accused of breaking the rules of the contest by including a leaflet pledging its support for Ed Miliband along with the ballot papers for the contest it sent to its 950,000 members eligible to vote.

"He understands the Labour Party needs to change and he is the best candidate to reconnect Labour with the concerns of ordinary working people," Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, Unite's joint general secretaries, say in the leaflet. GMB leader Paul Kenny threatened to withdraw funding from the Labour Party if Ed Miliband did not win, amid talk of a union plot to prevent David Miliband, seen as the more Blairite of the two, and therefore committed to public service reform, from taking the leadership. Ed was installed as favourite at the bookmakers for the first time, as counting in the ballot got under way, speaking of the need "to unite as a party and move forward and be a credible opposition". He also has spoken of the need to move beyond the Blair/Brown era, calling for an end to the "factionalism and psychodramas" of Labour's past. Some have already begun to speculate on what new psychodramas might emerge now that Ed has usurped what was assumed to be the natural order of things by beating David to the top job.

Ndugu watoana ngeo

[Dua]

ED MILIBAND

AGE: 40

FAMILY: Lives with partner and young son

BACKGROUND: North London Comprehensive school, Oxford university, Treasury

POLICIES: Tax the rich, tackle inequality, rebuild British industry

STYLE: Geeky but more laidback than brother David

KEY SOUNDBITE: "I am not the candidate for the easy life"

RANDOM FACT: He says he was not "cool" enough to hang out with ex Labour MP Oona King, who was in the year above him at school
　
　
　

Ed Miliband becomes first British political leader
of a major party to be living with his family
out of wedlock


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A very modern couple:
Ed Miliband and his partner
Justine Thornton


As the son of a North London Marxist intellectual, you might expect Ed Miliband to have a less than conventional approach to traditional family values. And the birth certificate of his 15-month-old son, Daniel, would appear to bear this out, as it includes everything except any mention of the boy’s proud father. Although the section headed ‘Father’ is blank, Daniel’s mother Justine Thornton is named, along with her Manchester birthplace and profession, barrister.

Daniel was born on June 2 last year and the birth certificate was signed by Justine in Camden, near the couple’s London home, five weeks later on July 9. There is no suggestion that Ed Miliband is not Daniel’s father and when asked why his name is not on the register, a spokeswoman for the new Labour leader suggested he simply had not had time to fill in the form. This is not the only unusual aspect of his private life, as Mr Miliband is also the first leader of a major British political party to be living with his family out of wedlock. He and Justine, who will give birth to the couple’s second child in little over a month, are not married.

Mr Miliband says: ‘We’ll get round to it at some point, but I don’t think people would mind if we didn’t.’ But the couple’s relaxed stance on marriage stands in contrast to David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s ultra-traditional set-up. It also reflects the changing attitude of voters; in past generations, being part of an unmarried couple would have been regarded as electoral suicide. Previous party leaders have either been married or, as with Edward Heath, resolutely single. Ed and Justine, who met five years ago, live in London’s Primrose Hill, close to both brother David and the large family home in which the boys grew up. The bohemian area is popular with actors, musicians and affluent Left-wingers: leading socialist thinkers frequently visited the Miliband home to talk politics with their father, Ralph. Ed has described Justine as ‘brilliant’ for bearing most of the burden of looking after their son while he pursues his political career.

Coming just weeks after the birth of David Cameron’s fourth child Florence last month, the arrival of the Milibands’ second child in November will be the first time in history that the Prime Minister and Opposition leader have had babies so close together. Ms Thornton, 39, had an unusual career start, as a child actress who starred in the ITV children’s series Dramarama during the Eighties. Her adult career has been more conventional: like both Cherie Blair and Miriam Clegg, she is a high-flying lawyer. But the Cambridge-educated barrister, who specialises in environment law, has had less time than David Miliband’s wife to adjust to the prospect of becoming a party leader’s consort as it has been only a few weeks since the polls started turning in Ed’s favour. Now Ms Thornton will feel the full glare of media interest in her style, behaviour and pronouncements. Some observers have already paid her the mixed compliment of calling her a ‘more demure and thoughtful version of Cherie’. Her first brush with the political limelight came a year ago when she was barred from working on Government contracts after it emerged that she had been retained by the energy company E.On at a time when it was seeking to win the right to build a series of new power stations worth more than £20 billion while Ed was Climate Change Secretary.

He had not excused himself from the meetings at which the deals were discussed, although there was never any suggestion of impropriety. She is highly regarded professionally, with the barristers’ bible Chambers describing her as ‘intelligent, thorough, enthusiastic and pleasant’ and ‘hard-working, bright and knowledgeable’. Ms Thornton was a senior associate at Allen & Overy international law firm before moving to the 39 Essex Street chambers. She is a member of the Attorney General’s Freedom Of Information Act panel, overseeing the operation of the Act that has led to revelations including the scandal of MPs’ expenses.

Watch out for the next battle with the Camerons ... ...

[Dua]

Labour civil war brews
　
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More hugs on stage but David Miliband keeps his brother
guessing over shadow cabinet post as Labour civil war brews



David Miliband calls for end to Labour's 'soap opera' politics

Ed Miliband dismisses talk of brotherly tensions: 'There is no psycho-drama'

David Miliband: 'I came here on Saturday planning a slightly different week'

Ed Miliband to delay decision on shadow cabinet posts until next week

Darling in swipe at Balls over Labour's need for a 'credible' deficit plan.

David Miliband keep the Labour party guessing over his future today by refusing to commit to taking a shadow cabinet post under his brother Ed. As he took to the stage at the Labour Party conference amid intense speculation about his future, the defeated brother said he was still making up his mind about his next step. 'I don't know if you noticed but I came here on Saturday planning a slightly different week. I am now thinking what I am going to do instead,' he said. Torn between having his pick of jobs in the shadow cabinet and starting a life away from politics, Mr Miliband, 45, said he would discuss his future with his wife Louise Shackleton.
But he issued a direct appeal to his supporters not to allow his leadership rivalry with brother Ed to degenerate into a Blair/Brown-style 'soap opera'.



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Brotherly love: Ed and David Miliband embrace at the Labour Party
conference in Manchester today


Receiving a standing ovation from the Labour conference, he added today that he was 'honoured and humbled' by the support he had received. 'Ed is a special person to me. Now he is a special person to you,' he told delegates in Manchester. Ed Miliband indicated today that he would be making no decisions on the make-up of the shadow cabinet until next week at the earliest. But asked if his brother would make himself available to play a part in his top team, Mr Miliband said: 'That's a decision for him and he will make the decision in his own way and his own time, and I think that's right.'

The new leader added: 'We had a very nice discussion on Saturday, but he needs his own time to think about what he is going to do'. Mr Miliband dismissed reports of tensions with his brother: 'There is no psycho-drama. David and I have been extremely close during this contest, before the contest and after this contest, and the graciousness he has shown since Saturday speaks volumes about him as a person'. Senior Labour officials said David Miliband was ‘being a bit tricky’ about confirming that he would keep his promise to serve under his brother, renewing speculation that he will walk away.
　

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Undecided: David Miliband and wife Louise Shackleton
arrive at the Labour Party conference today


Friends said his decision was ‘touch and go’ after what they described as the ‘traumatic event’ of losing the job he had always coveted to his 40-year-old brother. Mr Miliband issued an appeal for an end to Labour's 'soap opera' politics, insisting that the party would not win elections unless it was united. 'Let historians look back on our conference in Manchester and say this was the conference where Labour looked forward, not just to its own future but we looked forward to the future of Britain. 'That is our task at conference all of this week. We are a party that doesn't just examine our own navel, doesn't just sort out our own leadership. 'It's in touch every day with the people of Britain, concerned with their concerns, fighting for their issues and fighting for a cause that is very very special.'

Mr Miliband cited Labour's fourth leader, John Robert Clynes.
'He said "We come into Parliament not to practise a class war, but to end it".' Mr Miliband has until 5pm on Wednesday to decide whether to put forward his name for the shadow cabinet elections, which are expected to involve 50 or more MPs chasing 19 slots around Ed Miliband's top table. David Miliband was not originally scheduled to make a formal speech today, but revealed he had been asked last night to address conference. Making a joke about his defeat, he said: 'As it happens on my computer, in a couple of files marked "Saturday, version seven" and "Tuesday, version 23" it just so happens I've got a couple of speeches to draw on this morning.

'But don't worry, I'm not going to give them.'

Mr Miliband said: 'You don't run for the leadership, you don't do anything like that in politics or in life, unless you are 100 per cent committed to winning. 'But I've also learned something else in life: you never go in for something, especially something so important, unless you are sure in yourself that you are reconciled to the prospect that you might lose. That's life. 'So to those of you who have been coming up to me in the last few days - don't worry, I'll be fine.' He joked that at a reception for the Usdaw union a man told him: 'Ed, congratulations on your victory.' Mr Miliband told the conference: 'I can do without that.'

Some of Mr Miliband’s closest friends want him to walk away because they fear his every public utterance will be viewed as a plot to oust his brother as Labour leader. Sources close to the vanquished contender say that Ed has offered him any job he wants in the shadow cabinet. But with rumours strong that he may prefer to bow out, many of his own people want him to do it immediately rather than provoke a split in six months or a year. ‘It would be better to go now,’ said one ally. ‘The real problem is that whatever he does people will be looking at him and saying, "He disagrees with Ed" or "He said it better than Ed" or accusing him of plotting against Ed.’ Questions continued to be asked yesterday as to why his leadership campaign had failed. One party insider said: ‘There was a big weakness in his refusal to go after Ed. People told David he really had to shaft Ed, get stuck in, and he would react badly.’ Supporters expressed fury at the way union votes had overturned the verdict of MPs and grass-roots party members, both of whom heavily favoured David over his brother.

Ed Miliband risked enraging David’s supporters by arguing yesterday that his decision to plunge the political knife into his brother, after hinting for years that he would have a clear run, is proof that he is not a ditherer. Asked whether he can take tough decisions, he said: ‘You mean like standing in the leadership election.’Friends say David has coped stoically with a series of humiliations. The one-time front-runner had planned a victory party and written his inaugural speech as leader before he learned the result. He was then forced to find his own bedroom. ‘They give the best room to the leader,’ said a Labour official. ‘When they lost they were told to find another hotel.’ Prominent supporters of David accuse him of ‘bottling’ his leadership ambitions for the third time by failing to attack his little brother’s lurch to the left in the campaign.

Twice before, he had failed to challenge Gordon Brown for the top job – after Tony Blair’s 2007 resignation and in summer 2008. If he stays on, David Miliband is the favourite to become shadow chancellor. But he may prefer to keep his job as shadow foreign secretary, which is less likely to bring him into conflict with his brother. David Miliband later left the conference centre through a side gate, avoiding waiting reporters. Aides said he would return to the centre for his brother's first keynote speech as leader tomorrow.

[Dua]

Torn apart, the Cain and Abel of Primrose Hill
　

Ed Miliband may have pulled off one of the more remarkable political coups of recent times, but he does not yet know how much damage his unalloyed ambition has inflicted on his relationship with his brother. David Miliband’s closest friends had warned Ed it would be a bitter fight to the finish – yet still he persevered. Now, the new Labour leader must face the reality that his brother may well walk away from the Labour Party altogether. One senior MP, a key member of the David Miliband team, told me yesterday: ‘He has taken defeat really badly. We are working very hard on him to take a job in the Shadow Cabinet but I am not sure he will do it. He’s inclined to walk away.’


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Damaged beyond repair? Ed Miliband's victory in the Labour leadership race could inflict huge strain on his relationship with his brother

But a close associate of Ed’s said: ‘If you thought Blair was ruthless, meet Ed Miliband. If David does not work for him he will just get on with it. After all, he did say it’s time for a new generation to take over.’Ed insists the decision to stand was driven by political differences between the pair, not by his own desire for power. Yet Miliband, like his vanquished sibling, is driven not just by ideology but by a vaulting desire for the highest office. Even though at the outset he was a rank outsider, 40-year-old Ed fought his way to victory by displaying a ruthlessness of character his older brother clearly lacked.

David, of course, three times shied away from taking on Gordon Brown when he was in Downing Street. Miliband Minor – Labour’s 20th leader – is a year younger than Tony Blair was when he won the leadership in 1994, and he has seized control having served in the Cabinet for only three years.

Before he decided to throw his hat in the ring, he discussed the ramifications with his mother Marion, a retired Left-wing academic. Her advice has remained within the family, but she pointedly did not vote in the contest. One must presume today that she is deeply upset to see the ambitions of her first-born son so comprehensively dashed, but hugely proud that his little brother is now the keeper of the socialist flame which has always been such a powerful force in the Miliband household. Certainly politics was in the blood of Edward Samuel Miliband from the moment he was born, on Christmas Eve 1969. He is the son of Ralph Miliband, an influential Marxist intellectual who fled the Nazis on the last boat to England from Belgium in 1940. Suffice to say, it is more likely Ralph, who died in 1994, would have voted for Ed than David, if only on ideological grounds.

The family house in Primrose Hill, now one of London’s most fashionable districts, played host to key Left-wing figures of the era. Tony Benn, the late former leader Michael Foot, Tariq Ali and Joe Slovo, the then leader of the South African Communist Party, were regulars.


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Rivalry: Ever since they were young the Miliband brothers have been battling each other

While his elder brother sat enraptured asking precocious questions, young Ed took himself off to the family TV room. He was more interested in JR Ewing, Bobby and the rest of the cast of Dallas. Today, he has a weakness for the trashy American soap Desperate Housewives. He grew up to be a studious boy. ‘On Wikipedia it says I was the lead singer in a punk band. I’ve left it on there because I wish it was true, but it’s not,’ he says bluntly. Despite the distractions of Dallas, he was leafleting for the local Labour Party by the time he was a teenager Ed shone at the local Haverstock comprehensive school and won a place at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, studying politics, philosophy and economics. He secured a 2.1 at the same college and in the same subject his brother had chosen five years earlier.

His first serious political role was as a speech writer for Harriet Harman when Labour was in Opposition in the early Nineties. Gordon Brown spotted Miliband’s potential and poached him for his shadow treasury team in 1994. He has never looked back. As one of Brown’s special advisers at the Treasury following Labour’s 1997 landslide victory, he was one of the most powerful unelected people in Britain until 2002, when he went on sabbatical to teach economics at Harvard University for two years. He returned as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers at the Treasury before the 2005 election.

As the Blair/Brown feud intensified, it was Ed who became the only trusted emissary between the two camps. He was known as ‘the ambassador from Planet F***’ as he was the only one of the Brown team who didn’t tell the Blairites to f*** off. He was selected for the safe seat of Doncaster North for the 2005 election. Even though Ed was standing for parliament for the first time, Brown insisted he was included in the strategy team which delivered Blair’s historic third term. He was a Cabinet minister within two years, and as Climate Change Secretary, joined Foreign Secretary David around the same table as the first brothers in a Cabinet since 1938. Ed witnessed first-hand how much of Gordon Brown’s energy was so destructively channelled into trying to destroy Blair. Ed vowed privately to himself, and his own inner-circle, not to repeat the mistake. Yet he knows that the backlash is coming from the Blairites, having gone out of his way to antagonise them during the campaign. Miliband seems to relish the nickname Red Ed, and is happy to call himself a Socialist, saying: ‘It’s funny that’s a criticism for the leader of the Labour Party, isn’t it? You don’t have to be a Leftie to think that bankers paying themselves millions when it’s not justified is just wrong.’ Will clear water between Ed Miliband and the Coalition work – or will dragging his party back to its ideological roots leave Labour as unelectable as in the dark days of the 1980s?

[Dua]

　Labour has climbed in its coffin and is nailing down the lid


We owe Labour nothing, after seeing the outcome of its past 13 years of governance. But it is hard to resist tossing a crumb of pity to the party that is today embracing its Iain Duncan Smith moment. In 2001, the demoralised Tories turned their backs on the British people and chose as their leader an obscure, unelectable diehard, whose only virtue was his hatred of Europe. In 2010, the Labour faithful have surrendered their future to the candidate they think most likely to bury New Labour and push back the clock a generation. 'Unity is my watchword,' Ed Miliband told Andrew Marr in his first, boyishly emollient post-victory interview yesterday. 'I'm going to be a responsible opposition.' But it is unnecessary to make up catchphrases, such as 'Red Ed', to convince people that Miliband minor will not be Britain's next prime minister - or, indeed, prime minister at all.


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Turning their backs: Labour appears to be following in the footsteps
of the Tories under Iain Duncan Smith


Unless he performs a self-transformation that would make Superman's quick telephone box changes look amateur, he will spend the next few years in a wilderness familiar in times past to Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock - as a party darling with little to say to the British people that they are foolish enough to believe. Miliband got his job against the wishes of a majority of Labour MPs and party members, because Britain's trade unionists think him the man most likely to fight for their sectional interests - no matter that these priorities are not shared by the nation. In the crazy, skewed contest contrived by the party's organisers, some voters were able to cast as many as five ballot papers, if they could claim membership of more than one Labour interest. David Cameron must have raised a glass in celebration over the weekend. Here he is, as Prime Minister, facing the challenge of holding together a coalition government at a time of unprecedented cuts in public spending.

And here is the opposition, choosing as its standard-bearer a man branded from day one as the pawn of his union paymasters. Miliband cried plaintively yesterday: 'I'm nobody's man. I'm my own man.' But even in his party, there is anger about the fact he owes his election to the likes of Bob Crow, who deploys London's Tube workers to raise the moth-eaten flag of class war, and a gaggle of other union leaders, who believe the first duty of public services is to serve their employees, not the public. Miliband must find a job at the forefront of his Shadow Cabinet for Ed Balls, chief architect of Gordon Brown's shipwreck of the British economy and today still shamelessly committed to spending ever more of our money.

He must also reconcile his elder brother to humiliation in the contest. Only those who believe in Santa Claus will accept that David Miliband today is in a mood to give Ed a big hug for any purpose save to strangle him. The new leader got the job because Labour, who never liked Tony Blair, wants to clear the cupboard of everything associated with him: romance with the rich, cosying up to the Americans, a pretence of enthusiasm for public services reform and, of course, Peter Mandelson. The party Ed Miliband's supporters expect him to lead wants to address how taxpayers' money is spent - not how it is earned. It esteems fairness above excellence and care of the disadvantaged minority above the interests of the majority. It values the protection of perceived losers above the advancement of strivers and winners. It is, in other words, the old party of Callaghan, Foot and Kinnock


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Clearing the decks: Max Hastings beleives that Brownite Ed Miliband
was elected because the party wants to rid itself of anything to do with Tony Blair

It examines the world no further than its own navel. And it ducks the foremost question for Britain in the 21st century - how can the nation make its living in the face of brutal competition from the Asian tigers? Ed Miliband is clever - more so than the Tories' IDS. But, like so many modern, young politicians, he knows almost nothing of the universe outside Labour politics, to which he has been reared since the cradle. He is a typical metropolitan, socialist male: son of a Marxist academic, scion of North London and sceptical about marriage, to judge from his decision to have children with his girlfriend without all the bourgeois bother of taking her to the altar. He makes noises about his desire 'to show that we are on the side of the squeezed middle' of society, but rejects most of their values. He says he acknowledges public concern about immigration. But when asked about this issue yesterday, he mentioned only EU workers coming to Britain - the famous, or infamous, Poles - and said nothing about the non-EU migrants who are the real focus of public dismay and, indeed, anger.

Who believes for a millisecond that, if he formed a British government, he would lift a finger to stem the tide of immigration?

Actions have consequences.

Labour's leadership choice will make it much harder for the party to fulfil its best hope of shaking, even breaking, Cameron's coalition. There has been much speculation since May's general election about the prospect of a Liberal Democrat split, with unhappy MPs from the party defecting to Labour. Last week's Lib Dem conference made plain the unease felt by Nick Clegg's rank and file about their partnership with the Tories, which has already crippled the party's poll standing. But few of even the most disgruntled Lib Dems are likely to sign up with losers. Labour's best chance of attracting their support was to start looking like a party with a real chance of wresting power from the coalition. As it is, they know that Ed Miliband's merry band of socialists look every inch a party of opposition - not of government. Of course, we know that, as public spending cuts begin to bite in the months ahead, the popularity of Cameron and Clegg's adminnistration will shrink.

But their most notable success since spring has been in convincing the British people that only by enduring pain now have we any hope of averting worse things later - of laying the foundations for a solvent future. Support for the Government's attack on the national deficit could prove more robust and longer lasting than some people fear. Alan Johnson is supposedly one of Labour's moderates. But he said at the weekend, with extraordinary complacency: 'It is a traditional feature of British politics that Conservative governments do harm to public services and it becomes Labour's task to restore them.' Ed Miliband said yesterday of the coalition: 'They're going about the cuts in an irresponsible way.' Unless, or until, Labour discovers the honesty to acknowledge publicly that Britain is broke because the Blair-Brown governments saddled it with wholly unaffordable - as well as inefficient and wasteful - public services, we cannot believe them about anything else.

Unless, or until, Ed Miliband produces a credible alternative programme for rescuing this country from its morass of debt, he will not deserve to be treated as a serious rival to David Cameron. Yesterday, in a memorable moment of his interview with Andrew Marr, which was worthy of John Prescott, the new Labour leader said: 'You get my clear drift.' Well, yes Ed. Maybe. Quite. Sort of. We understand that for months - and perhaps years ahead - Labour will be talking to itself rather than to the British people. If anybody needed confirmation of the defiantly revisionist mood of the party, they got it yesterday when that old Stalinist Ken Livingstone topped the poll in the elections for the national executive. A friend of mine, who is a devoted and shrewd Labour supporter, said matter-of-factly a few months ago that he is sure David Cameron will be prime minister for two terms. The events of the weekend suggest Labour has climbed into its coffin and will spend this week in Manchester nailing down the lid. I am sure there will, some day, be a Labour resurrection, that the party will again govern Britain. But it will not be under Ed Miliband and it will not be until the party faithful have another Blair moment and make the painful course alteration necessary to revisit planet earth and address its inhabitants.



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[Dua]

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Backbencher ... David Miliband Backlash ... ...ED

Out: David Miliband outside his London home this afternoon and (right) brother Ed on the stage in Manchester




GUTTED David Miliband sensationally quit frontline politics today saying he wanted to recharge his batteries and spend more time with his family. The defeated Labour leadership candidate announced he will not be seeking a role in brother Ed's Shadow Cabinet and will instead join the backbenches. David said he wanted to leave his younger brother, 40, with "a free hand and an open field" to lead the Labour Party. He said: "Any new leader needs time and space to set his or her own direction, priorities and policies. "I believe this will be harder if there is constant comparison with my comments and position as a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

"This is because of the simple fact that Ed is my brother who has just defeated me for the leadership. "I genuinely fear perpetual, distracting and destructive attempts to find division where there is none and splits where they don't exist, all to the detriment of the party's cause. "Ed needs a free hand but also an open field." Ed today welcomed his brother's "thoughtful and gracious" announcement that he is stepping aside from frontline politics and said: "My door is always open for him to serve in the future." But observers said David, 45, is falling on his sword for his brother who betrayed him. To stay on would mean Ed's leadership would forever be dogged by their "psychodrama" rivalry, David has reluctantly concluded.

Bully boy

Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi said: "David Miliband was a leading architect of New Labour. The fact that he doesn't want a place in Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet speaks volumes about the direction in which the new leader is taking Labour. "After being elected by the unions, this is further evidence that Ed Miliband is vacating the centre ground of British politics." Former home secretary David Blunkett said: "I believe that David Miliband is a man of honour. He has made the right decision for himself, his party and his brother. "I promise him that it is possible to make a contribution outside cabinet and shadow cabinet, to still be heard where it matters and to think the unthinkable. "I look forward to working with him from the backbenches in that role."

The decision will leave Ed facing a bitter backlash amid claims he has wrecked his brother's brilliant career by standing against him for the Labour crown and only beating him with bully boy union muscle. David added — in a letter to Alan Donnelly, the Chair of the South Shields Labour Party — he now wanted to devote more time to his wife and sons. He said: "I have essentially been a Cabinet minister for the whole of Isaac and Jacob's lives. That is tough for me and tough for them.

"One happy consequence of the leadership election will be more time with Louise and the boys." The MP for South Shields also said he would take some time to "recharge". He said: "I want to recharge my political and intellectual batteries to be of greater service to the party and the country. I have spent 16 years in or around the top of politics in one capacity or another. "There's a world out there that I have touched but about which I want to know more - from education to the environment to foreign policy. "I think I can best make a contribution to the election and success of the next Labour government under Ed's leadership by devoting myself to understanding better the new challenges and new ideas that will dominate the next couple of decades, and figuring out how to put our values into practice."
　
　

DAVID Miliband stepped aside with all the dignity and generosity of a big brother making room for his young and inexperienced sibling to grow. But this was not quite the gift to Miliband Minor might seem. David deliberately kept Ed dangling for four anguished days, although he made up his mind to walk immediately after his humiliating defeat. He was never going to serve under the man who will go down in Labour history as the "Ed the Knife".

The ex-Foreign Secretary says he wants to avoid becoming a focus for division on Labour's front bench. But Ed would prefer to have had his brother inside the tent puffing out, rather than outside puffing in. Instead, for most MPs and Labour activists, David remains the uncrowned king across the water. This bitter saga has a long way to run.

[Dua]

　
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At ease: David Miliband and his wife Louise Shackelton on their London doorstep this afternoon




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In the spotlight: Mr Miliband has left his brother Ed hanging for days about his future plans

[Dua]

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Tale to two brothers: David and Louise looking relaxed in London and (right) Ed with Eddie Izzard in Manchester



　

David Miliband's Letter to Alan Donnelly, chair of his Constituency Labour Party in South Shields.

Dear Alan,

For nine years South Shields and the South Shields Labour Party have given me great support. I look forward to that continuing for many years to come. The extraordinary efforts of party members - from Shields and across the country - during my leadership campaign made me feel very proud indeed of our shared values and shared vision.

As I said at party conference on Monday, we now have a great responsibility to unite behind Ed's leadership. With his strong speech yesterday, Ed has already started the fightback. On the day that nominations close for the Shadow Cabinet, I think it right to explain to you and party members why I think I can best support him from the backbenches.

The party needs a fresh start from its new leader, and I think that is more likely to be achieved if I make a fresh start. This has not been an easy decision but having thought it through and discussed it with family and friends I am absolutely confident it is the right decision for Ed, for the party and for me and the family. There are three reasons for this.

First, this is now Ed's party to lead and he needs to be able to do so as free as possible from distraction. Any new leader needs time and space to set his or her own direction, priorities and policies. I believe this will be harder if there is constant comparison with my comments and position as a member of the Shadow Cabinet. This is because of the simple fact that Ed is my brother who has just defeated me for the leadership. I genuinely fear perpetual, distracting and destructive attempts to find division where there is none and splits where they don't exist, all to the detriment of the party's cause. Ed needs a free hand but also an open field.

Second, I want to recharge my political and intellectual batteries to be of greater service to the party and the country. I have spent 16 years in or around the top of politics in one capacity or another. There's a world out there that I have touched but about which I want to know more - from education to the environment to foreign policy.

I think I can best make a contribution to the election and success of the next Labour government under Ed's leadership by devoting myself to understanding better the new challenges and new ideas that will dominate the next couple of decades, and figuring out how to put our values into practice. There is also the new politics of community organising that we started with the Movement for Change in the leadership campaign and which has enormous potential that I want to develop for the good of the party.

Third, there is a personal dimension. I have essentially been a Cabinet Minister for the whole of Isaac and Jacob's lives. That is tough for me and tough for them. One happy consequence of the leadership election will be more time with Louise and the boys.

You know how important public service and politics are to me. My job as MP for South Shields is precious. So is my commitment to the Labour Party - the greatest reforming force in British life in the past, and I hope so again in the future. I have been touched by how many party members came up to me at Conference asking me to campaign for them in the upcoming Scottish, Welsh and local council elections, and I look forward to doing so. But I genuinely believe that I can best serve Ed, the party and the country from a new position, and I look forward to working with you to make a success of the decision.

It is a great privilege to represent South Shields in Parliament. There is much to be done to defend the town from the decisions of the new Government, and to put in place firm foundations for the resurgence of Labour as a leading force in British life under Ed's leadership. That is what I intend to do.

Yours ever,
David
　



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