Brothers Compete To Lead British Labour Party

Robert Siegel talks with Simon Hoggart, a columnist for the Guardian newspaper in London, about the British Labour Party's election of a new leader. Results will be announced Saturday. Hoggart says the online bookies are betting on the Ed Miliband, the younger of two brothers competing for the spot.

DAVID GREENE, host:

It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Im David Greene.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And Im Robert Siegel.

The British Labour Party picks a new leader tomorrow, someone to succeed former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. With Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron leading a coalition government, the new Labour Party chief will be Leader of the Opposition.

And here's a twist: with the future orientation of the party at stake, the two leading candidates are brothers, the Miliband of Brothers, David and Ed Miliband.

Columnist Simon Hoggart of The Guardian joins us now from London. And, Simon, first of all, who actually takes part in the vote to choose the Labour Party leader?

Mr. SIMON HOGGART (Columnist, The Guardian): Oh, well. Like everything to do with the British Labour Party, it's very complicated. But it's a weighted vote of Members of Parliament, labor unions, and individual members.

SIEGEL: Tell us about the brothers. David Miliband, some of us here know about because he was the foreign secretary. Ed Miliband, also a member of the Cabinet?

Mr. HOGGART: Ed was the energy secretary and the climate change secretary in the last Labour government, which ended in May. He's very keen on climate change, by which I mean he's very keen on stopping climate change. A great -thematic is the wrong word - but certainly a great proselytizer for the need to do something about it - carbon capture, that kind of thing. Very fashionable cause these days, as you know.

SIEGEL: David Miliband is the senior brother, at 45?

Mr. HOGGART: He's the older one, yes. And I think it will be psychologically very, very painful for him if his brother wins, and the bookmakers are saying thats a strong possibility tomorrow. You know, Im a big brother myself. I love my little brother greatly. But if I suddenly woke up and found that he was my boss, I think I'd find it a little difficult to adjust to. But there's talk now that David will, indeed, force himself to be a junior partner in whatever administration or shadow administration that Ed were to throw together.

SIEGEL: And their background, where the Milibands come from?

Mr. HOGGART: Well, David and Ed Miliband were raised by their parents who were Marxist intellectuals, not necessarily communists - they weren't lovers of Stalin. But they were very left wing, indeed. Lived in north London, which is often a hotbed of left wingery, if you like. And a very intellectual upbringing, indeed, and both of them look rather geeky, I have to say. And both of them, to be frank, are rather geeky.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. HOGGART: And the older one is David. He looks doubly geeky because his head is almost a rather strange angle. His mouth, for example, seems to point up at 45 degrees. I always think when I see him that he looks that a kid who's been making a Mr. Potato head in a very clumsy fashion.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIEGEL: Ill let you move on to his brother. First noting, however, that I've had dinner with David Miliband and I did not have the same impression. But go ahead. Go ahead.

Mr. HOGGART: Well, you probably didnt see him smile very much.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. HOGGART: Of course, he wouldnt in your company.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. HOGGART: But he was - his brother, his little brother obviously, Ed, he's thought to be slightly more left of center than his brother. I think a lot of people are going to vote for Ed, because they dont believe that any of the candidates has any chance of becoming prime minister - that David Cameron is there for a long time. But they want the party to get back to its roots. And it doesn't actually matter whether the guy is immensely popular to the public, as a whole.

SIEGEL: When Labourites say that - when, say, left wing Labourites talk about going back to roots, how deep do they plan to go dig? I mean back to nationalizing key industries, that sort of Labour Party?

Mr. HOGGART: Oh, no. No. Party is dead as the woolly mammoth, but empowering labor unions slightly more than they are at the moment. I think mainly though, it will be very populist attack on bankers. Bankers are very, very unpopular at the moment. If you've made a speech echoing Lenin and said, you know, we are going to hang the last banker with the guts of the last hedge fund manager, you'd probably get a cheer, almost any audience in Britain, and I suspect quite a few in the United States, as well.

So I think you would see threats of a great deal of action against the bankers who brought us - also it's believed to the state we're in, which is not a good one.

SIEGEL: And the Miliband brothers are not the only candidates seeking the post of Labour Party. There are others but they're considered the two frontrunners.

Mr. HOGGART: They are, yes. Nobody thinks the other three have much of a chance. The bookies have Ed just coming in on the rails to beat his older brother. And thats today's betting results tomorrow and we'll know in less than 24 hours.

SIEGEL: Simon Hoggart of The Guardian, thank you very much for talking with us.

Mr. HOGGART: Thank you.

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