Ed Miliband wants voters to see a little bit more of the man he is this conference, and his speech today is expected to be very personal, giving even more vivid glimpses into the Labour leader’s life. He will draw on his own upbringing in the speech, pointing to his parents’ experience as Jewish refugees and the education he received at a London comprehensive.
Although this is being billed as the most personal speech Miliband will give, it’s not as though he hasn’t delivered speeches before about his identity. In his first speech as Labour leader in 2010, for instance, he told the hall that he wanted ‘to tell you who I am’ and described his parents’ flight to Britain in quite some detail.
In 2011, he told conference delegates in Liverpool about how his background had given him unique insight:
‘What’s my story? My parents fled the Nazis. And came to Britain.
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