LONDON — Mom is neutral. Everyone else has an opinion.
The unusual spectacle of two brothers fighting for the soul of the defeated Labour Party — and the chance to challenge British Prime Minister David Cameron in the next general election — has turned a ho-hum contest into a nail-biter.
Voting began this week, with former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, 45, seen as a slight favorite over his younger brother, former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, 40, and three other candidates. Results will be announced at the start of a party conference in late September.
The younger Miliband is running a maverick campaign, promising to bring the Labour Party back to its working-class roots after the centrist, pro-business policies that brought Tony Blair and his New Labour associates to power in 1997. He enjoys strong support from some vocal union leaders, who have an influential voice in the selection process.
“I’m the candidate most willing to turn the page in this election,” Ed Miliband says on his campaign website, taking a subtle dig at his big brother, who represents the party Establishment.
He isn’t attacking his older brother by name — they have promised to maintain family harmony if at all possible. But he has launched a scathing attack on New Labour leaders for endorsing “brutish” U.S.-style capitalism at the expense of the working man, accusing them of adopting the Conservative Party philosophy of letting the free market rule.
The youthful brothers physically resemble each other and have similar mannerisms. Both have a hint of gray in the same spot of their otherwise dark hair, and both cultivate an easy, approachable manner. David Miliband is more polished and experienced on the world stage — making a strong and favorable impression on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and others at summit meetings.
Their Jewish parents escaped from Poland at the height of the Nazi terror. The late Ralph Miliband was a prominent left-wing academic and author; his wife, Marion, 75, has never commented publicly on the horrors she faced as a child, when she went into hiding after her father and other close relatives were sent to the death camps.
