Labour leadership race turns family affair

On Wednesday, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband was the first senior party figure to announce his bid for the leadership, a day after Gordon Brown resigned as prime minister and leader of the centre-left party. “I have decided to stand to be leader of the Labour party,” Ed Miliband, 40, said in a speech to the Fabian Society, a centre-left think tank.

“We lost touch with the values that made us a progressive force in politics and we lost touch with the people we sought to represent.” The Labour leadership race is likely to turn into a battle between left and right wings of the party, both of which will draw different lessons from its defeat in last week’s election. David Miliband, regarded as a “Blairite”, is the favourite of the right of the party. The brothers are likely to face a challenge from a more left-leaning candidate like former Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

While Ed Miliband is less well known to the public than his brother, he is popular within the party and has the support of  trade unions, Labour’s financial backers, giving him support from both left and right. ---