Beyond that, Miliband has also delighted young people by bumping into them across London and posing for pictures.

One of them was 18-year-old Patrick, who met Miliband in March. "I was with a group of friends passing through Charing Cross tube station celebrating my 18th birthday," he told BuzzFeed News. "One of my friends shouted that they had just seen Ed Miliband and then we all ran over to him on the platform.

"Ed and his wife Justine looked very surprised to see all of us but they were really friendly and happily took lots of selfies with us. There must have been about 30 people in total taking photos with Ed and chatting to him."

A bystander filmed Patrick and his friends cheerfully accosting Miliband and his wife, and sent it on Twitter to Westminster gossip account EyeSpyMP. The tweet soon received an avalanche of likes and retweets.