Ed Miliband defeats brother David to capture U.K. Labour party leadership

In somewhat of an upset 40 year old Ed Miliband has come from behind and captured the leadership of the British Labour party. David ,the former foreign minister and elder brother 45, supposedly closer to the Tony Blair wing of the party, had been the original favourite when the race got under way this summer but Ed Miliband quickly became the preferred person among the anti-Blair more traditional Labour party supporters and among the trade unions who still have a powerful voice in the Labour party. For an interesting explanation of why see Roy Hattersly's article on Ed Miliband's victory in today's The Guardian.

In fact, the Labour electoral college is split three ways among MPS and MEPs, the trade unions and rank and file members. There were five candidates and each voter cast a ballot that indicated their first and second preference. The bottom candidate was dropped out after each round and the second preference votes redistributed in the next round.(see the results below)

David Miliband led on all but the last round after Ed Balls the third place finisher who had campaigned on a more Keynesian orientation than the others was eliminated. His second preference voters pushed Ed over the top by a narrow margin 50.6 % to 49.4 % for David. Although David had won the majority of MP's and MEP's and ordinary party members' votes Ed Miliband won far more of the trade union sector votes . So much so that he narrowly defeated his brother on that basis.

The brothers embraced warmly at the end (as I know their late  father Ralph who was one of my professors at the L.S.E. who was proud of his sons' achievements would have wanted) The other candidates were Andy Burnham and Dianne Abbott.

We will now to get to see how well Ed Miliband the first Jewish leader of the Labour party in its history
(the Conservatives have had two Michael Howard and Benjamin Disraeli) does against David Cameron and Nicholas Clegg in Parliament and in his mandate to reposition the Labour party as a party of the centre left. The hopes of millions of Britons are with him.

The results as reported in the New Statesman

First Round

Diane Abbott: 7.4%,

Ed Balls: 11.8%.

Andy Burnham: 8.7%.

David Miliband: 37.8%.

Ed Miliband: 34.3%.

(Abbott eliminated)

Second Round

Ed Balls: 13.2%

Andy Burnham: 10.4%

David Miliband: 38.9%

Ed Miliband: 37.5%

(Burnham eliminated)

Third Round

Ed Balls: 16%

David Miliband: 42.7%

Ed Miliband: 41.3%

(Balls eliminated)

Fourth Round

David Miliband: 49.35%

Ed Miliband: 50.65%

(Ed Miliband elected)