Ed Miliband wins the Labour Party leadership race 2010

In a narrowly fought contest, predominantly with his own brother David Miliband, Ed Miliband has won the Labour Party leadership race (2010). With 50.65% compared to 49.35% for his brother, Ed Miliband won by the slimmest of margins, but the real challenge will be how he deals with the reality of the victory he has won.

In his speech to the party he started out by talking about the importance of uniting the party. A big part in this will be his ongoing relationship with the other candidates in the Labour Party leadership race, and this came through his speech as he spent a lot of the time he had complimenting Ed Ball, Diane Abbot, Andy Burnham and of course his brother. In an attempt to put the leadership election behind him, he commented that he wanted to “Draw a line under this contest and move forward as a team”.

Community also seemed to be a big feature to his opening speech as leader of the Labour Party, as well as his focus on attracting more young people to join the party. “I know we need to change,” he said, acknowledging his that the people that he had spoken to from the community had highlighted feeling anxious about wages, immigration and housing.

He also referred to the war in Iraq in his continued reference to change, saying that whatever the situation that led to the war, it had created a lot of mistrust in the Labour Party.

Discussing the issue of the economy, he went on to say that he wanted to reduce the defect responsibly to have an economy working for the “hard working people of the country”. He promised to oppose the coalition government’s spending cuts where he felt they were the wrong thing to do, but support them when they are right. He also made mention of the inequalities in the gap between the rich and poor.

He set out his stall succinctly as he reeled off a short list of what could be construed as his focal points as the leader of the Labour Party, “family, community, time, the environment.”

Out of what sounds like the end of New Labour, we may have Labour’s new generation, as Ed Miliband summed up with, “today the work of the new generation begins”.

His doubters may refer to his Bambi-like qualities, but then Tony Blair managed to sweep into Number 10 with similar comments surrounding him. Others might say that the Labour Party, and in particular the Unions (who were amongst his strongest supporters), chose a leader on the basis of political outlook rather than potential to mount a significant Parliamentary challenge, but only time will tell on that front. However, perhaps the biggest challenge facing Ed Miliband will be dispelling the “Forest Gump” tags that seemed to be the dirtiest points in a fairly clean Labour Leadership race.