The charm of Ed Miliband

Sitting opposite Ed Miliband MP in a large and airy office, the sort of office that befits the Minister for the Third Sector, I suddenly have the surreal impression that I’m at the doctor’s. It’s the medicinal green of the carpet but, more than that, it’s Ed’s demeanour. There he is on the sofa, all clean and healthy-looking, like a man who jogs and who knows how important it is to stay hydrated, and concerned too — leaning forward, his eyes bright with eagerness to fix things.

I’m here to find out what Ed’s about, because at only 37 he’s tipped for a grand job in Brown’s Cabinet; because one day, long after poor, desperate Gordon’s gone, either he or his better-known elder brother David (the Environment Secretary, famous for not standing against Brown) may well be at the helm of a new New Labour party, or a new Old Labour party; a new young New Old Labour party maybe. But all I can think of is what a lovely GP he would have made. ‘Don’t worry! Dr Miliband’s on his way!’ There, better already. So, I begin, tell me about your father. And now I sound like the doctor, but anyone who wants to understand these two starry siblings — Westminster’s answer to the Schumachers, say — must begin with their dad.

Ralph Miliband was one of Britain’s most influential left-wing intellectuals. Born in Belgium to Jewish immigrants from Poland, in 1940 he escaped the Nazis with his father by walking 60 miles to the Channel and talking his way on to the last boat to England. On his first summer in this country he made his way to Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate, north London, and swore ‘my own private oath that I would be faithful to the workers’ cause’.