Miliband Pledges ‘No Lurch to Left’ After Labour Leadership Win

The U.K. Labour Party’s newly elected leader, Ed Miliband, rejected accusations he’s in thrall to the labor unions that secured his victory as he set out plans to tax banks more and tackle wage “inequality.”

Miliband defeated his elder brother David by 50.65 percent to 49.35 percent in the final round of voting to head the party that Gordon Brown led to defeat in the May 6 election, results announced yesterday showed. Support from organized labor ensured Ed’s victory; he won 42 percent of union first-preference votes, with the Daily Mail and other newspapers dubbing him “Red Ed.”