As Ed Miliband took charge as the U.K’s new Foreign Secretary, officially the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, on July 20, he stated that international development and tackling the climate crisis would be the core priorities of the U.K’s foreign policy under him. “We will work with others on tackling the climate crisis, strengthening our partnerships for international development, and reforming our international institutions so they deliver for all countries, including the world’s poorest people,” Mr. Miliband wrote on X.

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Under the previous Labour government led by Keir Starmer, Mr. Miliband held the position of Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. He had previously been the Energy Secretary under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010. In that short stint, Mr. Miliband strengthened the 2008 Climate Change Act and implemented the U.K. Low Carbon Transition Plan, which was the country’s first economy-wide decarbonisation strategy.

After taking on the role again in 2024 under Mr. Starmer, Mr. Miliband oversaw the implementation of various policies that backed the U.K’s commitment to renewable energy. He established the Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company, to expand and accelerate homegrown clean energy production and deployment.

He also laid out the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, which aims to reduce the U.K’s dependency on volatile fossil fuel markets, especially in light of the Ukraine war, by “harnessing the power of Britain’s natural resources so that we can protect working people from the ravages of the global energy market”.

One of his very first moves as Foreign Secretary was to visit Spain and France, the two countries which are now dealing with devastating wildfire disasters. After Mr. Miliband met with Spain’s Foreign Minister, both governments released a joint statement which acknowledged climate change as a global challenge and detailed that these “summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life.”

Seasoned politician

Mr. Miliband is the son of Polish Jewish refugees who came to the U.K. fleeing the Nazis during the Second World War. He started his career in TV journalism before entering politics. He was recruited as a speechwriter by then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Harriet Harman, in 1993, and climbed through the ranks to work with Gordon Brown. He stood for elections for the first time in 2005, and attained his first Cabinet position under Mr. Brown in 2007.

His older brother, David Wright Miliband, a former labour party MP, had also, coincidentally, served as the Foreign Secretary in the Brown Cabinet from 2007 to 2010. Both of them ran against each other for the post of Labour Party leader in 2010 after Mr. Brown resigned. The race was eventually won by the junior Miliband.

One of the prominent reforms that Ed Miliband made as Labour Party leader from 2010 to 2015 was to abolish the electoral college within the party, and make it a ‘one member, one vote’ system. He also sought to unify the party, under the campaign ‘One Nation Labour’, as one working for the country and its people as a whole rather than for sectional interest groups.

Mr. Miliband was once one of the biggest critics of U.S. President Donald Trump. After Mr. Trump’s election as President in 2016, Mr. Miliband had remarked that he had “lowered the bar for idiocy.” However, in his statement after his appointment as Foreign Secretary, Mr. Miliband affirmed that he would “nurture our strong, enduring and essential alliance with the United States”.

Rebuilding ties with the EU, post- Brexit, is also a distinct challenge for Mr. Miliband. “Britain’s national economic and security interests are served by having a stronger relationship with our European allies,” Mr. Miliband said in his statement.

Domestically, the immediate challenge seems to be the shift in Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s stance on new drilling licences for oil and gas in the North Sea. As the U.K. suffers from droughts and heatwaves, Mr. Burnham has hinted at taking a “pragmatic approach” on renewed drilling licences and has said that the government cannot ignore the potential energy resources the North Sea holds. These comments came after Mr. Trump said that Mr. Burnham would “open North Sea oil”, in a telephonic conversation between the two premiers.

Mr. Miliband has vociferously opposed renewed drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea as it would delay the transition to clean energy. He has also argued that since North Sea energy is sold on the international market, domestic consumers would not see much of a reduction in their energy bills. If Mr. Burnham goes ahead with allowing drilling in the North Sea, Mr. Miliband and he could potentially be at loggerheads.

Published – August 02, 2026 02:15 am IST

Andy Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester for nine years until he won a special election for a seat in Parliament last month with the intention of challenging then Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Andy Burnham, the only Labour lawmaker so far to ⁠say he wants to replace outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
| Photo Credit: Reuters