David Miliband

David Miliband (born July 15, 1965, London, England) is a British Labour Party politician who served as foreign secretary (2007–10) under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Miliband was the son of a Belgian father and a Polish mother, Jewish (and Marxist) refugees who had fled Nazi Germany. He grew up in a home devoted to fierce political debate. Like his younger brother, Ed (who also became a member of Brown’s cabinet in 2007), Miliband attended a local comprehensive school in North London. He secured a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and a master’s degree in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In London Miliband worked as a research fellow (1989–94) at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank with close links to the Labour Party’s “modernizers,” who wanted to distance the party from its traditional socialist doctrines. In 1994 he edited a collection of essays, Reinventing the Left. Tony Blair was elected party leader that same year and appointed Miliband as his head of policy. When Blair became prime minister three years later, Miliband was named to head the Policy Unit, where he earned a reputation for being clever but not arrogant.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Wishing to pursue a political career, Miliband in 2001 was elected a member of Parliament from the safe Labour constituency of South Shields, in northeastern England. Within 12 months Blair appointed him minister of state for schools—a post just below cabinet rank—and in 2004 Miliband became a minister for the Cabinet Office. Following the 2005 general election, he was made a full member of the cabinet, as minister for communities and local government. A year later he acquired one of Whitehall’s largest departments when he became secretary of state for environment, food, and rural affairs. In this post his responsibilities included developing British policy on climate change.

Less than 14 months later, however, in June 2007, Brown took over as prime minister and promoted Miliband to the foreign office. (It was considered a mark of his political sensitivity and maturity that Miliband was trusted by both Blair and Brown.) As foreign secretary, Miliband steered British foreign policy away from unquestioning support for the United States, especially regarding the Iraq War. He also sought to convince all sides that despite his Jewish heritage he would be evenhanded in his dealings with the continuing disputes concerning Israel and Palestine.

Miliband was seen by many as a potential challenger for Brown’s leadership of the party. However, when Brown came under increasing criticism in the spring of 2009, Miliband declared his support for the prime minister after Brown promised to alter his leadership style. In the general election of 2010 Miliband retained his seat but lost his cabinet position when Labour was ousted from office. After Brown resigned as party leader in the wake of Labour’s defeat, Miliband made a bid to replace him but was narrowly defeated in the leadership vote in September by his brother, Ed. In March 2013 Miliband announced that he was resigning his seat in Parliament to accept a position as president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid and development organization.