David Cameron

Born: London

Age: Turns 44 on 9 October

Background: Son of Ian, a stockbroker, and Mary, daughter of Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet. Descendant of King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. Distantly related to Boris Johnson. Grew up in a fine Queen Anne rectory in Peasemore, Berkshire

Education: Eton, first-class honours in philosophy, politics and economics at Brasenose College, Oxford

Home: Lives in flat above 11 Downing Street; renting out his semi-detached house reportedly worth £1.6m in North Kensington, London - an affluent neighbourhood but not as affluent as you might expect

Constituency home: Expensive and infamously wisteria-clad home in Oxfordshire. Criticised for claiming for wisteria removal in his expenses

Family life: Married to Samantha Sheffield for last 14 years; three children, Nancy, Arthur and new baby Florence. Ivan, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died aged six in 2009

Nappy test: Image of hands-on dad, currently on night duty with Florence at the weekends. According to Clegg, was struggling to assemble an Ikea cabinet until the deputy prime minister popped round to help

Work experience outside politics: Six-and-a-half years working for TV company Carlton, where he was director of corporate affairs

Years as an MP: Nine

Political obsessions: The big society, cutting the deficit, personal responsibility and benefits reform

Political blind spots: Bankers, regulating City excess, his party's right wing. Environmental issues were useful to help shed the "nasty party" tag early on but have vanished from his agenda

Personal strengths: Calm, charming, comfortable in the most hostile debates, methodical, excellent at keeping in touch with colleagues

Weaknesses: Class. Occasionally betrays a usually well-buried born-to-rule arrogance

Brushes with the law? Plenty of speculation about Bullingdon Club antics; has declined to answer questions about his possible drug use as a student

Key allies: George Osborne, Andy Coulson, Steve Hilton, Michael Gove, fellow Old Etonian Edward Llewellyn, his chief of staff. Andrew Feldman, co-chairman of the Conservative party is an old university friend, and Kate Fall, Cameron's deputy chief of staff, is a friend from Oxford and Tory Central Office days

Friends outside politics: Allie Esiri, the actress, is close to Sam Cameron, who used to play pool with Tricky while a student in Bristol. Kirstie Allsopp is another friend of Sam Cam's

Enemies: Simon Heffer, former BBC business editor Jeff Randall who crossed swords with Cameron when he was at Carlton, and foxes

Religion: Told the Guardian his Church of England faith "is a bit like the reception for Magic FM in the Chilterns: it sort of comes and goes"

Music: Bob Dylan, The Killers, and leftfield indie including Radiohead, The Smiths and Pulp

Books: Cider With Rosie, Patrick Hennessey's The Junior Officers' Reading Club, Chris Mullin's A View From the Foothills

Hobbies: Tennis, riding, jogging, cycling, supports Aston Villa, likes watching darts

Holidays: Cornwall. One of many well-heeled visitors to the area around Rock and Padstow. Has boasted of modest holidays in Snowdonia, South Devon, the Lake District, Norfolk, the Scottish Highlands and the canals of Staffordshire but also partial to Brittany and Turkey

Nick Clegg

Born: Buckinghamshire

Age: 43

Background: Third of four children. Dutch mother and banker father. Paternal grandmother a Russian aristocrat who fled the revolution. Grew up in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire; his parents own a 10-bedroom chateau in France and a chalet in the Swiss Alps

Education: Westminster School, London; studied social anthropology at Robinson College, Cambridge; post-grad in political philosophy in Minneapolis; MA in European affairs in Bruges

Home: £1.3m house in Putney, in leafy south-west London

Constituency home: Close to the Peak District. Criticised during the expenses scandal for claiming close to the maximum under the second homes allowance, with expensive gardening bills. Insisted would return any profits from its sale to the taxpayer

Family life: Married to Miriam González Durántez, a Spanish-born lawyer, for last 10 years; three sons, Antonio, Alberto and Miguel

Nappy test: Hands-on Ikea handyman. Dismisses baby author Gina Ford as "absolute nonsense". Admits to using disposable nappies

Work experience outside politics: Office junior at a Helsinki bank one summer, intern at The Nation magazine, New York, won a Financial Times award but soon quit journalism for the European commission

Years as an MP: Five (but five as an MEP as well)

Political obsessions: Civil liberties, voting and wider constitutional reform, the coalition

Political blind spots: Regressive effects of deficit cuts, poverty, his own party's left wing, absence of women and non-white Lib Dem MPs

Personal strengths: Personable, multilingual, speaking English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish, certainly no little Englander

Weaknesses: Can sound flustered and tetchy when interviewed; said to be trying - and failing - to keep track of absolutely everything going on in the coalition

Brushes with the law? Teenage arsonist who set fire to a rare collection of cacti on a school exchange

Key allies: Chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, chief of staff, Jonny Oates, former MP Julia Goldsworthy, press spokeswoman Lena Pietsch, former director of the thinktank Demos Richard Reeves

Friends outside politics: Marcel and Louis Theroux, Sam Mendes

Enemies: Gordon Brown - they fell out during the expenses scandal and things have not improved. Cacti

Religion: Openly atheist

Music: A Prince concert-attending fanatic while in America, his favourites are classical: Schubert's Erlkönig and Impromptu in E-flat minor, Strauss's Four Last Songs and Chopin's Waltz in A-minor. Roxy Music star Brian Eno is a former adviser

Books: Reads a lot. Inspired by Samuel Beckett; Lampedusa's The Leopard is a another favourite; enjoys early Coetzee and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall; calls political memoirs "ghastly"

Hobbies: Skiing, mountaineering, meditation. Once wrote an "impenetrable, pretentious" (unpublished) novel. Acted opposite Helena Bonham-Carter at Cambridge

Holidays: Olmedo, a small town north of Madrid, Spain, where his wife was born

Ed Miliband

Born: London

Age: 40

Background: Son of Ralph Miliband, the socialist thinker, and Marion Kozak, both Jewish immigrants from Poland

Education: Followed brother David to Haverstock comprehensive in Chalk Farm. Better A-levels than David but while his elder brother got a first, Ed settled for a 2:1 in philosophy, politics and economics at Corpus Christi, Oxford. Masters in economics at the LSE

Home: A Victorian four-storey terrace in Dartmouth Park

Constituency home: Red-brick two-up, two-down terraced house in Doncaster. Sailed through the expenses scandal on account of claiming just £6,300 a year in rent, compared with other contemporaries, including his brother, David, who spent far more lavishly

Family life: Unmarried. Partner is Justine Thornton, a barrister; they have one son, Daniel, with a second son due in November

Nappy test: Bathes Daniel but admitted he has never looked after Daniel by himself for 24 hours. Was told off by Justine for giving him an ice-cream on holiday. Also criticised for confessing his family uses disposable nappies

Work experience outside politics: Brief stint as a TV researcher; later spent almost 18 months in the US, teaching economics at Harvard

Years as an MP: Five

Political obsessions: Climate change, a living wage, the widening gap between rich and poor, shedding Blairite past such as ID cards and third runway at Heathrow, Labour's need to win back DE voters

Political blind spots: Has not yet carved out a distinctive position on Labour's traditional strong-points: health and education; critics claim he's ignoring aspirational New Labour voters who have switched to the Tories

Personal strengths: Excellent communicator, empathic, warm manner, conciliatory and diplomatic, unusually good at inspiring young voters

Weaknesses: Seen by some critics as uncombative. Has said his biggest weakness is he is "very demanding" of himself and others. Attributes this to his time working for Gordon Brown

Brushes with the law? Squeaky clean

Key allies: Campaign manager Sadiq Khan, aide Polly Billington, a former Radio 1 reporter; Neil Kinnock, Peter Hain, GMB leader Paul Kenny, some bloke he defeated called David to the party leadership ("my best friend in the world")

Friends outside politics: Dr Marc Stears, political theorist at Oxford University; a few pals in London media circles

Enemies: Tory press, Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson. Not brother David, obviously

Religion: Labour's first Jewish leader admits he does not believe in God

Music: US rockers Kings of Leon and indie chic Vampire Weekend were used to mark his entry and exit at the Labour conference but professes a taste for cheesy 80s music and indie band Hard-Fi

Books: Recently read The Audacity to Win by Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe, but winds down with more popular fare including anything by Henning Mankell

Hobbies: Addicted to Desperate Housewives, Dallas obsessive as a child, enjoys old cartoons such as Top Cat, the Flintstones, Scooby Doo, encyclopaedic knowledge of the Boston Red Sox

Holidays: Cornwall