{"id":782550,"date":"2026-09-25T21:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782550\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T21:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:12:11","slug":"why-ed-miliband-has-embraced-his-awkward-dad-image-in-viral-tiktok-video-ed-miliband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782550\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ed Miliband has embraced his \u2018awkward dad\u2019 image in viral TikTok video | Ed Miliband"},"content":{"rendered":"

It sparked delight among the diehard Milifans and a begrudging smile from those less keen on the foreign secretary, but a viral video of Ed Miliband<\/a> has \u2013 possibly \u2013 confirmed his status as the internet\u2019s awkward dad.<\/p>\n

About 1.5 million people have viewed an interaction between Miliband and the TikTok personality Feroz Khan on the streets of New York, during which the digital content creator asks Miliband a series of questions including his name, job and his top piece of advice.<\/p>\n

Following the same formula employed by Khan in every video, Miliband is stopped in a seemingly \u2013 though of course not at all \u2013 impromptu manner by the influencer who says: \u201cYou\u2019re very well dressed, what do you do for a living?\u201d<\/p>\n

When Miliband, in New York for the UN general assembly, explains that he is the foreign secretary (adding that he is the UK equivalent of Marco Rubio when Khan claims not to know what that is), the influencer asks: \u201cWhat makes your work so special?\u201d Miliband gushes that he is \u201ctrying to make the world a better place\u201d.<\/p>\n

So far, so soft serve. But it is when Miliband is asked about any challenges he has faced and, with the charm of an ingenue, replies \u2013 \u201cOh wow! I ran to be prime minister of Britain. It didn\u2019t go so well \u2026 but I kept going!\u201d \u2013 that it is clear his media team have fully capitalised on social media\u2019s love of the cringe moment.<\/p>\n

Miliband is asked a series of questions including his name, job and his top piece of advice. Photograph: khann_journey\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Miliband has been on a journey since May 2014, when the then Labour leader was photographed ineptly eating a bacon roll during a campaign visit in New Malden<\/a>. It was an image that launched a thousand memes and, occasionally, if daftly, was pointed to as a reason that Labour lost the 2015 general election.<\/p>\n

Freed of the shackles of leadership \u2013 and embraced by a generation that frames mortifying incidents as unifying moments \u2013 Miliband is now free to take pleasure in the delights of a vegan fruity flapjack, safe in the knowledge that the video of him doing so will probably bolster his particular internet aura rather than damage it.<\/p>\n

While Reform UK\u2019s Lee Anderson wrote thunderously of the video, \u201cOur Foreign Secretary! Putin will be quaking in his boots!\u201d, his team were perhaps notching up the hits and watching Miliband\u2019s expanding online presence.<\/p>\n

The PR consultant Mark Borkowski said: \u201cEd Miliband has finally worked out that the awkward dad thing isn\u2019t a reputational defect. It\u2019s his brand. In an age of politicians desperately trying to manufacture authenticity, the slight cringe actually makes him feel human. He\u2019s not trying to be cool, he\u2019s letting the socials enjoy the fact that he isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the video nods to content consumers being in on the joke, some observers have pointed out that it is clearly staged rather than spontaneous, because Miliband\u2019s aides do not stop when the foreign secretary starts speaking with a \u201cstranger\u201d and his answers seem rehearsed.<\/p>\n

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A government source agreed that it may well indeed have been a remarkable coincidence if Miliband had just bumped into an internet celebrity who also just happens to bump into famous people including Jennifer Lopez, Sydney Sweeney and Bradley Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t Ed trying to hoodwink anyone. This is how these videos work \u2013 it\u2019s really exciting working with content creators, but you have to outsource editorial control,\u201d they said. \u201cThe vast majority of people who watch a video like this understand that the tone is native to the format.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the clock of views ticking up, the video had clearly reached a lot of people who may have been unfamiliar with Miliband\u2019s early oeuvre. But Borkowski said there was potential for the knowing nod about Miliband\u2019s maladroit moments to backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe danger comes when the choreography becomes visible,\u201d he said. \u201cAwkwardness works because it feels accidental. Once people think the \u2018dad dancing\u2019 has been Blackfriars Road focus-grouped, the joke shrivels.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sparked delight among the diehard Milifans and a begrudging smile from those less keen on the foreign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782550","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=782550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}