“Red Ed” Miliband takes over UK’s Labour Party

UK's Labour Party held its annual conference on Sunday with Ed Miliband as its new leader. ''Red Ed'', as he has been dubbed by the Tories, beat his brother David Miliband by the narrowest of margins in a gruelling contest lasting over four months.

Ed finally sneaked ahead of David in the fourth round of vote-counting benefiting from the second preference, or the redistributed, votes of eliminated candidates Diane Abbott, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls. He trailed favourite David through the first three rounds.

Ed finally won after Ed Balls' votes were redistributed. Balls is certainly regarded as more hardline left than either Ed or David Miliband.

Ed was endorsed by the country's three largest trade unions – Unison, Unite and the GMG – and in the final analysis it was their support that saw Ed sneaking ahead of his brother in a five-cornered contest.

The support assumes importance as the unions have already chalked out a programme of protests and industrial action against the policies of the ruling Conservative-Liberal coalition led by David Cameron.

For his part, David won a majority of support from Labour MPs at Westminster and grassroots activists, but was defeated by Ed's support from the trade unions.