Bleary eyes and bed hair... as Miliband admits that he ‘doesn’t do mornings’, here’s the proof!
HE has confessed that he is not a morning person.
So perhaps it was no surprise that Ed Miliband did not look his best as he held a dawn photo call yesterday.
Looking tired and with his hair still a little unkempt as he visited a family for an early morning cuppa, the Labour leader seemed as though he was in need of the caffeine boost.
Mr Miliband was discussing Labour’s plans to increase paternity leave with father-of-two Tom Gray, 44.
They sat around a large wooden kitchen table with Mr Gray’s partner Sarah Phillis, 48, who is a storyteller, their sons Milo and Archie, and his mother, 71-year-old Ulla Gray.
Joining Mr Miliband on the visit to the family’s £700,000 home on a leafy street in Peckham, south east London, was his deputy, Harriet Harman, who is the local MP.
Mr Miliband eventually forced a smile as he posed in the very middle- class kitchen, complete with double oven, Union Jack biscuit tin and carefully positioned fruit bowls.
The early morning visit came after Mr Miliband admitted at the weekend that he is not at his best first thing. ‘My secret is I’m not a brilliant morning person,’ he told the Financial Times Magazine, adding that he ‘does not like it’ if his two sons jump on him to wake him up.
The next stop for Mr Miliband was the ITV This Morning studio, which probably left him feeling he had got out the wrong side of the bed as presenters Phillip Schofield and Christine Bleak- ley introduced him with a video of his worst moments as Labour leader, complete with a dramatic soundtrack.
‘He failed to eat a bacon sandwich with dignity, but Ed Miliband is fighting back,’ Schofield told viewers as they were shown the embarrassing picture. Mr Miliband said: ‘I suppose what that shows is I’m not running to be the “photo opp Prime Minister”.’
Schofield replied: ‘Isn’t that an essential part of the job – because you end up looking like Mr Bean if you get it wrong?’ Mr Miliband answered: ‘Thanks very much. The truth is that image of course matters, but the issues we face in this election are profound for people.
‘You’ve got so many people thinking the recovery has hit the City of London, but it hasn’t hit my kitchen table and that’s what I want to change.’
To make his bad hair day even worse, a poll of more than 1,000 viewers found 78 per cent did not see Mr Miliband as a future prime minister.
Confronted with the results, Mr Miliband said: ‘I always say I want to be the first politician to under promise and over deliver rather than over promise and under deliver.’
Asked whether he regretted anything about his job, he said the long hours mean he has less time with his sons, who are four and five, and his wife, barrister Justine Thornton.
He added: ‘My job as leader of the Labour party is important but my most important job is being a good dad.’
In documentary Inside The Commons, which will be screened on BBC2 at 9pm tonight, Mr Miliband also reveals that despite their political rivalry, he and David Cameron ‘often talk about our families... and compare notes on the struggle to combine being a politician with a family life’.
‘End up looking
like Mr Bean’