{"id":702798,"date":"2026-07-21T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702798\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:51:14","slug":"ed-miliband-ex-labour-leader-now-uk-foreign-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702798\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Miliband: Ex-Labour leader now UK foreign secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Miliband<\/a>, a former leader of Britain’s centre-left Labour party who quit after losing the 2015 general election, capped a decade-long political rehabilitation with his appointment Monday as foreign secretary.<\/p>\n

After several years in the political wilderness following his 2015 resignation, Miliband has staged a gradual comeback, first serving in former prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>‘s shadow cabinet from 2020.<\/p>\n

He then became secretary of state for energy security, aiming to deliver the transition towards a net zero economy after Labour’s return to power in 2024, holding the post for two years.<\/p>\n

His new job — one of Britain’s four so-called great offices of state, alongside the posts of prime minister, finance minister and interior minister — marks a promotion and high-point in Miliband’s revitalised career in government.<\/p>\n

Calling it “a great honour and privilege”, he pledged in a letter posted online to continue Labour efforts to “deepen and strengthen” EU relations and “nurture” Britain’s “essential alliance” with Washington.<\/p>\n

Miliband pledged that Britain will work towards a “sustainable peace” between Palestinians and Israelis, highlighting the need to end the suffering of people in Gaza amid the nearly three-year genocidal war on the devastated territory <\/a>while bringing “security for the people of Israel”.<\/p>\n

Miliband also vowed to be “at the forefront of issues which pose profound and substantial threats to justice and equality in Britain and across the world”.<\/p>\n

A divisive figure dubbed by critics on the right an “eco-zealot” as well as “Red Ed” for his supposed socialist stances, he has also often appeared little-loved within Labour’s own fractured ranks. Rumours that he might be named finance minister rattled the markets earlier this month.<\/p>\n

‘Biblical act of fratricide’<\/p>\n

Spearheading British diplomacy on the international stage will undoubtedly help bolster his experience and stature, which has been overshadowed at times by his elder brother David Miliband<\/a>, himself a former foreign secretary.<\/p>\n

It also serves as an opportunity to prove his perpetual doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

“I’m a pretty resilient guy and I’ve been underestimated at every turn,” Miliband said shortly before quitting as Labour leader.<\/p>\n

Born to Jewish immigrant parents — a Marxist academic father and a campaigning activist mother — Miliband grew up in a London household where prominent left-wing intellectuals from around the world came to dinner.<\/p>\n

Encouraging their sons from an early age to take part in the discussions, their parents appear to have had a big influence on the brothers’ subsequent political journeys.<\/p>\n

“They taught me most of all that politics can make a difference to people’s lives,” Ed Miliband told London newspaper The Standard in 2021.<\/p>\n

He first became active in student politics at Oxford University and after a stint as a journalist quickly rose through Labour’s ranks.<\/p>\n

While his brother was serving as foreign secretary and being tipped as a future leader, he served as energy minister and finance ministry advisor in the Labour governments of the 2000s.<\/p>\n

But in 2010 Miliband surprised many by entering, and then winning, the contest to succeed Gordon Brown<\/a> as leader following the party’s defeat to the Conservatives after 13 years in power.<\/p>\n

David Miliband — a protege of ex-prime minister Tony Blair — also stood and was viewed as the safer, less left-wing candidate.<\/p>\n

Ed Miliband’s challenge was considered by some “an almost biblical act of fratricide”, according to his biographers.<\/p>\n

His elder brother eventually relocated to New York to helm the International Rescue Committee and has not returned to British politics.<\/p>\n

‘Godfather’ of Burnham return<\/p>\n

Miliband led Labour during five years of state-backed austerity unleashed by Conservative prime minister David Cameron<\/a> in reaction to the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n

His tenure was marked by right-wing media focusing on his perceived lack of charisma.<\/p>\n

He was mocked for his nasal voice, while a photograph of him awkwardly devouring a bacon sandwich has dogged him for years.<\/p>\n

He remained an MP for Doncaster, in northern England, after resigning and kickstarted a partial image makeover as he co-hosted a popular political podcast, “Reasons to Be Cheerful”.<\/p>\n

A keen fan of football and baseball, he took up cold-water swimming during the Covid lockdowns.<\/p>\n

He is married to Justine Thornton, a High Court judge specialised in environmental law, and the couple have two sons.<\/p>\n

In government, Miliband has been characterised as a relentless advocate for climate change mitigation measures but has faced extensive negative coverage in Britain’s right-leaning newspapers and reportedly irked some unions.<\/p>\n

But he has appeared undeterred publicly, and is said to be a big believer in Burnham’s agenda of decentralising power.<\/p>\n

Miliband has been “the godfather of Andy’s return,” John McTernan, a former Blair adviser, told Politico this month.<\/p>\n

Britain’s new foreign secretary “gets that we’re in the second quarter of the 21st century and we need new approaches,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Miliband, a former leader of Britain’s centre-left Labour party who quit after losing the 2015 general election,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19306,59,57,58,50,56,233266,2110,54,55],"class_list":["post-702798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-uk-foreign-office","tag-uk-foreign-secretary","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}