The newly crowned Labour leader used an article in The Sunday Telegraph to insist his party would be on the side of the “squeezed middle” and “everyone who has worked hard and wants to get on”.
However, he won by only 1.3 per cent and was dependent for his victory on votes from the unions, a point immediately exploited by the Tories.
Mr Miliband, who was portrayed as Left-wing and nicknamed “Red Ed” during the leadership campaign, used his article to try to track back to the centre ground. He vowed to lead a “responsible Opposition” and, in another message aimed squarely at Middle Britain, which Labour needs to win back, declared that his party would “not oppose every cut” brought in by the Coalition as it battles to eradicate the deficit.
“We must never again lose touch with the mainstream of our country,” the new leader wrote.
His pledge came after a knife-edge result announced at the start of Labour’s conference in Manchester on Saturday. The complicated voting system put David Miliband ahead in the first three rounds of voting.
However, the final round saw Ed sneak ahead to win by 50.65 per cent to 49.35 per cent. To add to the problems facing the new leader, his electoral debt to the unions was already being claimed as a propaganda victory by the Conservatives last night.The turnout in the union section of Labour’s electoral college was, furthermore, less than 10 per cent.
David Miliband won most votes among the party’s MPs and MEPs, and in the third of votes given to ordinary party members. However, Ed Miliband was comfortably ahead in the union section, and also benefited from “second preference” votes switching to him from the third-placed candidate, Ed Balls.
When the result was announced at 4.49pm Ed Miliband embraced his older brother, who had been shocked when his sibling decided to challenge him for the leadership in May.
“David, I love you so much as a brother,” he declared in his acceptance speech, the key theme of which was to demonstrate that he grasped the problems facing both his party and the country.
However, hisses were clearly heard at this point as tensions from what had been an ill-tempered four-month contest boiled over.
David Miliband, who had on at least three occasions declined to challenge Gordon Brown, looked stunned as he realised his chances had disappeared.
Ed Miliband must now find a major job for his brother, possibly carrying on, for the moment at least, as shadow foreign secretary.
The Sunday Telegraph has learned that the brothers met in secret about 10 days ago over breakfast at Ed Miliband’s home in Primrose Hill, north London. The meeting, which carried echoes of the deal struck at Granita restaurant by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before Labour’s leadership election in 1994. The deal saw each brother agree to work under the other whatever the result. It seems certain to be dubbed the “Granola pact” in mock-tribute to the Blair-Brown agreement.
Mr Miliband’s Sunday Telegraph article, his first as leader, sought to portray him as the man who could “make the change happen” in an echo of Barack Obama’s campaign for the US presidency. It also stressed his own relative youth, he is 40, and that of his supporters in the leadership contest.
“The party has made the first step in electing a leader from a new generation,” he wrote.
He added that he would support the Coalition “when it is right”. He cited the Government’s withdrawal timetable for British troops in Afghanistan, the liberal line being pursued on prisons by Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, and the “battle” being fought by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to “do away with” university tuition fees.
He vowed to set out plans to show Labour was a “constructive alternative to the Government” and admitted that voters had “lost trust” in the party — particularly over the Iraq war. Aides to Mr Miliband were quick to rebut claims that the narrowness of the victory was a problem for him. They said a breakdown of all votes given to the brothers across all sections saw Ed poll 175,519 to David’s 147,220. Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Party chairman, congratulated Mr Miliband but said he owed his victory to votes of trade unionists, which she feared would lead to an “abandonment of the centre ground” by Labour.
In his acceptance speech Mr Miliband said: “I believe in Britain. Today’s election turns the page, because a new generation has stepped forward to serve our party, and in time I hope to serve our country. Today the work of the new generation begins.”
He also paid tribute to his partner, Justine Thornton, for the “incredible love and support” she had shown.
He told delegates that he had heard “the call of change” as he toured the country during the contest. He added: “I get it that people felt they were working long hours without reward and felt we weren’t properly on their side. I get it that people weren’t prejudiced about immigration, people felt anxious and insecure about their wages and conditions and housing. I get it and I understand the need to change. I need to unify the party and I will.”
David Cameron telephoned Ed Miliband to congratulate him, and added: “I was Leader of the Opposition for four years and know what a demanding but important job it is.”
David Miliband said: “It’s a huge day for the Miliband family, not quite the day for the Miliband family I would have wanted — the Miliband D family, rather than the Miliband E. But that’s the way things go.”
