- I wasn't a teenage rebel. On Wikipedia it says I was the lead singer in a punk band. I've left it on there because I wish it was true but it's not.
- From then on I think I was aware of a vulnerability in him and that made me less rebellious. He had a serious heart-bypass when I was 21 and died when I was 24.
- Have you noticed how uncomfortable David Cameron is when he has to talk about responsibility at the very top? He found it easy to be tough on you. VAT went up. He called it a tough decision. Tax credits were cut. He said they couldn't be afforded. Help paying for childcare was hit. He said it was the only thing he could do. When you have had to pay, it's always necessary, it's always permanent, it can never be reversed. And yet at the same time they are straining at the leash to cut the 50p tax rate for people earning over £3,000 a week. Only David Cameron could believe that you make ordinary families work harder by making them poorer and you make the rich work harder by making them richer. It's wrong. It's the wrong priority. It's based on the wrong values.
- Now there are hard lessons here for my party which some won't like. Some of what happened in the 1980s was right. It was right to let people buy their council houses. It was right to cut tax rates of 60, 70, 80 percent. And it was right to change the rules on the closed shop, on strikes before ballots. These changes were right, and we were wrong to oppose it at the time.
- I'm not Tony Blair. I'm not Gordon Brown either. Great men, who in their different ways, achieved great things. I'm my own man. And I'm going to do things my own way.
- [on Margaret Thatcher] We disagree with much of what she did, as a Labour Party, but we can disagree and also hugely respect her extraordinary achievements and her extraordinary personal strength.
- These strikes are wrong but negotiations are still going on.
- Am I Tuffynuts? Tough enough? Hell yes, I am.
- Well, I may have been hit a few times. I went to a tough school.
- [I was] too square to drink underage and I did not take drugs even when I reached Oxford University. I was a bit square.
- [If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?] I would always like to spend more time with my wife, Justine, and our children Daniel and Sam.
- [Setting aside your differences, which one of your political rivals has impressed you most and why?] The Conservative MP Charles Walker is a very decent man who has bravely spoken out on mental illness.
- [What is the best attribute you have as a leader or potential Prime Minister?] I'm in this for the right reasons. I want to change the way the country is run, not just run a country.
- [I admit I'm uncool but] I wasn't ever as uncool as Mr Bean and I do laugh at myself.
- [on being convinced he can become Prime Minister] It comes from having a set of beliefs. I've got absolute faith in myself. My beef with Cameron is not where he went to school; he just doesn't show he's somebody who understands people's lives. Cameron didn't win a majority because in the end people weren't convinced. They fell in love with Clegg - and now they think he's betrayed them. I'm going to be the guy who doesn't promise the earth, who's going to say it's hard and difficult but I'm on your side. I'm not going into this because people say, "Ooh, he's good on the telly." That's all rubbish. In the end what matters is, do you have something to say? Maybe the big glasses should come back.
- A stewardess on an aeroplane said to me, "Hey, you're Ray Romano from Everybody Loves Raymond." I was like, no, I'm not Ray Romano!
- [on whether his marriage was politically motivated] Look, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. We got married because we wanted to get married.
- [on my TV I record] Glee, Desperate Housewives, Andrew Marr - but we don't ever watch Andrew Marr.
- My favourite song is Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. I've got an iPod with just all kinds of bad Eighties stuff on it.
- I'm an Ellie Goulding fan. She invited me to this benefit concert she was doing for the homeless just before Christmas. I really like her.
- I'm perfectly happy with my own voice. I was hoping it wouldn't be different [after surgery to treat sleep apnoea] exactly for that reason - and because everybody would say, "He's had it done to change his voice".
- [asked on BBC Radio 5 Live which political leader he would most like to have a drink with] I'd have a pint with all of them.
- When I was about 18 I met a kid who was my age and we got into this conversation about whether I was a rebel or not. I said I was never a rebel, and nor was he. He said it was because he had an older father. I said, "Yes, me too." There was definitely something about having a father who was 46 (when Miliband was born). In the playground it's, "How old's your dad?" And people say, "28". It wasn't the same for me.
- I do remember going to the school disco when I was 18 in white trousers and a purple jumper. I drove in my parents' car, a Volvo. I thought it was really cool to be driving the Volvo. I'd just learnt to drive and I thought it was... it was a bit lame, actually. [he didn't end up with a girl] Definitely not. Not in the Volvo and the white trousers and the purple jumper.
- It was quite a tough school. I was very interested in politics, which made me unusual. But the funny thing is that I didn't get bullied. I wasn't a particularly tough kid but I managed to look after myself. I wouldn't say I had bags of friends but I played computer games, cricket, tennis, and I liked people and I did the normal schoolboy things, everything except start smoking or get into trouble with the police.
- [on his father, who encouraged debate from his sons] But there was affection, too. It wasn't grim, you know - you're going to learn Das Kapital over the dinner table. I was very close to my dad. He had high expectations.
- [on not ever thinking about giving up politics to spend more time with his boys and how even the use of his BlackBerry at home is an issue] There are times when Justine confiscates 'Daddy's BlackBerry'.
- To be honest, I sort of knew from the first time there was something [when I met Justine].
- I used to wear big glasses and nasty jumpers. I had to get rid of them. There are times I wish I could just wear those jumpers again and not have to worry about collars and stuff. Life would be so much more simple.
- Weekends are a massive challenge. Sometimes I have to work, sometimes Justine has to work. [I'm stricken by paternal guilt] Particularly with Daniel. He expresses it in a way that a two-year-old does. He doesn't say, "Why is Daddy not around?" but he's sort of a bit off with me. It's the hardest thing. What you get out is related to what you put in. The thing I enjoy most is telling him stories about two sheep called Booboo and Heehee. They're made-up stories that my dad used to tell me. In some future life I'll write a children's book.
- [asked whether he thinks he's sexy, he looks startled then laughs] Justine would say "Yes" I'm pleased to say. I did answer a question on Question Time once and somebody asked me out for a date afterwards, after the end, so I thought that was good. I didn't go on the date. I wouldn't designate myself as sexy. I think it's for other people to make that judgement. I was a late developer, it's fair to say. I definitely wouldn't consider myself a sexy bloke. I was quite studious. On Wikipedia it used to say I was the lead singer in a band called Twisted Psyche at university - a punk band. I wish it was true but it's not.
- [on his relationship with his brother, David] It was tough. Very difficult. It's still tough but it's getting easier. I saw them (David and his wife, Louise) last week, and had a chat with him. We see each other quite a lot but it's been tough. I don't regret standing against him. The alternative was to say one of us is not going to stand or we're going to make a deal. I don't think that would have been the right thing to do. It's been tough for our mother. I think we both knew that for her sake we needed to keep it together. David and Louise were at our wedding and that was important. I think time will help a lot on this. [as boys, the only fights they had were with pillows] We got on very well as kids but five years is quite an age gap. He had a lot of the features that I hope I have, an ability to get on with people. I looked up to him. [asked how he would feel if such a situation arose between his own sons] They're not going into politics.
- [his one occasion of getting roaringly drunk] Tequilas. It must have been in my second year at university. You know, some people's awakening at university is drink or drugs - mine was actually about politics. I was interested in the world and politics. To say I was just serious is not right. I was actually very extrovert and outgoing. It wasn't like I sat in my room and plotted a political career.
- I don't think I'm awkward. I go round the country and I talk to people and (being weird) is never what anyone says. Now maybe they wouldn't say it to me but then there is an evolution as Red Ed, Vague Ed, Weird Ed, you know... I'm a serious person. I think my worst habit is excessive seriousness.
- Once I started going out with Liz, I stopped wearing the bad jumpers and big glasses. People in the office help me with what I wear and Justine definitely does. She says, "You can't wear that, sweetie." It was never a preoccupation for me. Maybe I didn't think I was that attractive and maybe I was more interested in thinking about the mind.
- [2014] I am not from central casting. You can find people who are more square-jawed, more chiselled, look less like (animation character) Wallace. You could probably even find people who look better eating a bacon sandwich. If you want the politician from central casting, it's just not me, it's the other guy. And if you want a politician who thinks that a good photo is the most important thing, then don't vote for me. Because I don't. But here's the thing: I believe that people would quite like somebody to stand up and say there is more to politics than the photo-op. And that culture diminishes our politics.
- [2011] Where is the health secretary? It's becoming a pattern with this prime minister. This morning in the papers we see the universities minister being dumped on for his tuition fees policy, we see the schools secretary being dumped on for his free schools policy and the poor deputy prime minister - he just gets dumped on every day of the week.
- [2020, after Boris Johnson's Internal Markets Bill was criticized by John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May] The Prime Minister has said many times he wants to bring unity to the country during his premiership. I therefore congratulate him on having in just one short year united his five predecessors.
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