Ed Miliband has been appointed foreign secretary, taking the job from Yvette Cooper in Andy Burnham’s new cabinet. The move puts one of Labour’s best-known figures back at the center of government, this time in a post that will shape Britain’s ties abroad.
Speaking outside Downing Street after his appointment by the prime minister, Miliband told the BBC the role was the “honour of my life.” He also said his family history shaped how he sees the office, noting that his parents came to Britain as Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. He said Britain gave them sanctuary, and added that he would carry that sense of democracy, the rule of law and freedom into the foreign secretary role.
Miliband has represented Doncaster North since 2005, but he has been part of Labour politics for far longer. Before Labour’s 1997 election victory, he worked for Labour MPs, and later served as a special adviser to Gordon Brown when Brown became chancellor. He was once seen as a possible chancellor himself, and in Sir Keir Starmer’s government he drew attention as energy secretary for his strong backing of net zero policies.
That approach also brought criticism, especially from Unite union leader Sharon Graham, who was unhappy with what she saw as a failure to protect the declining oil and gas industry. Miliband has long been a polarizing figure in British politics, in part because he has never hidden his left-wing views. His background included a politically engaged household in Camden, a north London comprehensive school, Oxford, and later the London School of Economics.
