David Miliband
David Wright Miliband, (born July 15, 1965) was the UK's Jewish Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Labour Party Member of Parliament for the constituency of South Shields in the United Kingdom.[1] He is the brother of Ed Miliband. Following the latter's election as leader of the Labour Party, David left UK politics and went to live and work in New York for Jewish charities. He is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee. It was reported that his total IRC remuneration for 2019 was c. $1 million.[2][3][4][5]
Contents
Family
Born in London, David Miliband is the elder son of Polish-born Marion Kozak and the late Belgian-born hard-line Marxist 'intellectual' Ralph Miliband. Ralph's parents had originally lived in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw. Ralph's father, Samuel, a leather worker, left Poland immediately after The Great War, settling in Brussels.[6].
David's paternal grandmother, Renia (later known as Renée), had also moved to Brussels, where she first met Sam, with the couple marrying in 1923[7]. Hitler’s invasion of Belgium in May 1940 as part of the German Western Offensive split the Miliband family in half: Ralph and father Samuel fled to England, while Ralph's mother Renée and baby sister Nan stayed behind for the duration of the war. They were not reunited until 1950.[8]
Politics
David Miliband studied politics at universities in England and the US, and started his career as a policy analyst at the Institute for Public Policy Research. At 29, Miliband became Tony Blair's Head of Policy whilst the Labour Party was then in opposition and was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the United Kingdom 1997 General Election which brought the party to power. Blair made him head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 to 2001, following which Miliband was elected to parliament for the north-east England seat of South Shields.
In government
Miliband spent the next several years in various junior ministerial posts in the British government, including at the Department for Education and Skills, before becoming Environment secretary. His tenure in this post saw climate change consolidated as a priority for Labour policymakers. On the succession of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, Miliband was promoted to Foreign Secretary, at 41, the youngest person to hold the position in 30 years.
Miliband is a social democrat and seen as Blairite in terms of advocating choice in public services. He is generally believed to be on the left of the New Labour project, which would be natural for a Marxist, advocating more action on the environment, higher public spending and a more pro-European foreign policy.
References
- ↑ First Names in Brown Dream Team. Sky News (2007-06-28). Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
- ↑ "David Miliband to step down as MP". BBC News. 26 March 2013. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21947497.
- ↑ Booth, Robert (27 March 2013). "David Miliband faces a diplomatic test at the IRC". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/mar/27/david-miliband-diplomatic-test-irc.
- ↑ "David Miliband 'feared being distraction' for Labour". BBC News. 27 March 2013. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21950493.
- ↑ Prentis, Jamie (30 September 2019). "David Miliband slammed for salary of nearly $1 million as charity boss". The National. https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/david-miliband-slammed-for-salary-of-nearly-1-million-as-charity-boss-1.917061.
- ↑ Newman, M., Ralph Miliband and the politics of the New Left, 2002, p.5
- ↑ M. Newman, ibid, p. 5
- ↑ Biographies: Lipman, Miliband & Saville (HTML). the lipman-miliband trust (2007-08-15). Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
