LONDON: Written off as a political insider lacking charisma, the leader of the centre-left Labour party Ed Miliband has confounded expectations to put up a tough fight to become Britain's next prime minister.
His party has consistently appeared deadlocked in polls against the main competition: the centre-right Conservative party of Prime Minister David Cameron, long seen as the slicker political operator.
Miliband's awkwardness was summed up in a photograph of him unattractively eating a bacon sandwich -- an image much reproduced in Britain's right-wing press.
"If this is a contest to see how someone can eat a bacon sandwich elegantly, I'm not going to win," Miliband quipped during the campaign.
A 45-year-old father of two married to environmental lawyer Justine Thornton, Miliband has put living standards at the heart of his election campaign, insisting that an economic upturn under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has not reached ordinary people.
Accused by opponents of leading a party with little economic credibility, Miliband has said he would continue cuts to bring down Britain's deficit, but on a gentler scale than the Conservatives.
A crucial difference to Cameron is that Miliband opposes holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, something the Conservative leader has promised by 2017 if he is re-elected.
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