Ed Miliband named UK foreign secretary after long political comeback

Ed Miliband, a former leader of Britain's centre-left Labour Party, was appointed foreign secretary on Monday, marking a high point in his return to senior politics after resigning as Labour leader following the party's 2015 general election defeat.

Miliband spent several years outside senior frontline politics before returning to Keir Starmer's shadow cabinet in 2020. After Labour returned to power in 2024, he became secretary of state for energy security and held that post for two years, with a focus on the transition to a net zero economy.

The foreign secretary role is one of Britain's four so-called great offices of state, alongside prime minister, finance minister and interior minister. In a letter posted online, Miliband called the appointment a great honour and privilege. He said he would work to deepen Labour's relations with the European Union and support Britain's alliance with Washington. He also said he wanted to work on issues that he described as serious threats to justice and equality in Britain and abroad.

Miliband has long been a divisive figure in British politics. Critics on the right have labelled him an eco-zealot and Red Ed, while he has also faced tensions within Labour's own ranks. Rumours earlier this month that he might be named finance minister unsettled markets, according to the source.

His new post gives him a more prominent role in British diplomacy and adds to a career that has at times been compared with that of his elder brother, David Miliband, who also served as foreign secretary. Ed Miliband was born to Jewish immigrant parents: a Marxist academic father and a campaigning activist mother. He has said his parents taught him that politics could affect people's lives.

He became active in student politics at Oxford University and, after a period as a journalist, rose through Labour's ranks. During Labour governments in the 2000s, he served as energy minister and as an adviser in the finance ministry while David Miliband was foreign secretary and widely viewed as a possible future leader.

In 2010, after Labour lost power to the Conservatives, Ed Miliband entered and won the contest to succeed Gordon Brown as party leader. David Miliband also stood and was seen as the safer and less left-wing candidate. Biographers described Ed Miliband's challenge to his brother as an almost biblical act of fratricide. David Miliband later moved to New York to lead the International Rescue Committee and has not returned to British politics.

Ed Miliband led Labour during years of state-backed austerity under Conservative prime minister David Cameron after the 2008 financial crisis. His leadership was marked by hostile coverage in right-leaning media, including criticism of his perceived lack of charisma and mockery over a photograph of him eating a bacon sandwich.

After resigning as Labour leader, he remained an MP for Doncaster in northern England and helped reshape his public image through the political podcast "Reasons to Be Cheerful". The source describes him as a fan of football and baseball and says he took up cold-water swimming during Covid lockdowns. He is married to Justine Thornton, a High Court judge specialising in environmental law, and they have two sons.

In government, Miliband has been described as a strong advocate for climate change mitigation measures, while also facing negative coverage in right-leaning newspapers and reported criticism from some unions. The source says he is also considered a supporter of Andy Burnham's agenda of decentralising power. John McTernan, a former adviser to Tony Blair, told Politico this month that Miliband had been "the godfather of Andy's return" and said the new foreign secretary understood the need for new approaches.