Former Labour leader tells MPs how his son said he ‘used to be famous’ and challenges David Cameron to live up to his one-nation rhetoric

Ed Miliband has spoken from the backbenches of the House of Commons for the first time in nine years, making an impassioned address about the need to tackle inequality.

The former Labour leader, who resigned in the wake of the party’s election defeat, made clear he had no intention of stepping away from frontline politics altogether as he took part in the Queen’s speech debate on the economy on Thursday.

He spoke first about his deep disappointment about Labour’s loss and added that it was “right that the party comprehensively examines the reasons for that defeat”.

In a self-deprecating turn, Miliband also told a joke about some of the “consolations of losing”, including spending time with his two boys.

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“I confess that my eldest, who’s just turned six, did bring me further down to earth last week. He suddenly turned to me out of the blue and said: ‘Dad, if there is a fire in our house I think we’ll be OK.’ I said: ‘Why’s that, Daniel?’ And he said: ‘If we ring the fire brigade, they’ll recognise your name because you used to be famous.’”



Miliband initially adopted a conciliatory tone towards the government as he congratulated George Osborne for the achievement of being chancellor for five years and welcomed David Cameron’s promise to govern as “one nation”.

The Labour MP, who in 2013 tried to adopt former Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli’s philosophy of “one nation” for Labour, said it was part of an “admirable side of conservatism” that recognised the divisions between the rich and poor.

He went on to call on the government to face up to the challenge of tackling inequality.

“A huge question facing all western democracies in the next five, 10, 20 years is whether we are comfortable with the huge disparities that exist, whether we are fated to have them and whether we want to even try to confront them. Personally, I believe we will have to ... I believe this is an issue for the right and left.”

He added: “Internationally and across the political spectrum, I believe what has changed these gaps are not just bad for the poor but bad for all of us.”

Miliband then called into question Cameron’s one-nation credentials, asking how this philosophy could be squared with a harsh and brutal welfare system, as well as making those at the bottom suffer so much of the brunt of deficit reduction.

He said Cameron was once seen as having made a “radical departure from the tenets of Thatcherism” when he spoke in 2006 about acting on “relative poverty”.

However, he added: “If the approach in the Queen’s speech is indeed meant to return to the earlier inclination of the prime minister’s approach, and I welcome that, ministers will need to prove it and to square the circle with the government’s proposals for deficit reduction.

“Can ‘one nation’ really be consistent with making those on welfare shoulder £12bn of the burden of deficit reduction and those at the top nothing at all? Can ‘one nation’ really be squared with cuts to tax credits with its impact on working people?

“Can ‘one nation’ be squared with a welfare system which is so often harsh, brutal and brutalising? Can ‘one nation’ be squared with a country where one million people go to food banks?

“Fighting an election and winning is some achievement. How he seeks to use the mandate is what will really define his legacy. He is in an unusual position in that he has fought his last election. He is able, if he wishes, to return to what he said when he first became leader of the opposition and not worry about an election around the corner with all the pressures that entails.

“I would urge him, perhaps through the chancellor, to follow through on this one-nation rhetoric.”

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Speaking before Miliband, Osborne paid tribute to the former Labour leader’s integrity, despite the Conservatives having mounted a highly personal campaign against his character. At one point during the election campaign, Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, suggested Miliband would stab the country in the back, having stabbed his brother in the back over the Labour leadership.

Osborne told the Commons: “Sincerely, it is very good the former leader of the Labour party is here. I think he earns the respect of everyone that he has come to this house so soon after the election defeat.

“Whatever the fierce argument of the general election, I don’t think anyone ever doubted his personal integrity or the conviction with which he made his argument and it is good to see him back in the chamber.”

The former chancellor Ken Clarke also praised Miliband’s performance and said it had nothing to do with Labour’s defeat.



“It causes me at times a slight annoyance to find that in the leadership election that’s broken out in the Labour party, some of those people who were a month ago his greatest admirers, his most loyal colleagues, closest to his cause, are now busily detaching themselves and attempting to scapegoat him for the problems that the Labour movement experienced,” he said.

“My opinion, for what it’s worth, is Mr Miliband fought a very good election campaign and actually it was much better than anybody expected because of the tabloid press and the expectations they had raised.

“I thought he put the message across very well, I thought the message was wrong and that was the judgment of the majority of constituents in my constituency and in my part of the world. It is not the case that somehow his performance has anything to do with the result.”

As Miliband spoke in the Commons, it emerged that his brother David is to return to the British political scene later this year with a speech to business leaders. It is thought to be his first address in the UK since quitting as an MP and heading to New York in 2013 to run the International Rescue Committee (IRC) charity.