Red Ed: I don't do God, I don't even believe in Him (but I WILL get married and I'm embarrassed my name isn't on child's birth certificate)

By Gerri Peev for the Daily Mail
Updated: 18:22 EDT, 29 September 2010

Ed Miliband has become the latest Labour leader to say he does not believe in God.

The new party leader followed the example of Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot in declaring his lack of faith.

‘I don’t believe in God personally but I have great respect for those people who do,’ he told Radio Five Live.

‘Different people have different religious views in this country. The great thing is that we are all, whether we have faith or not, by and large very tolerant of people whatever their particular view.’

Mr Miliband announced his atheism despite making much of his family’s Jewish origins in his keynote speech at the party conference and citing his parents’ escape from Nazi-occupied Europe to Britain as the reason for his involvement in politics.

'Embarrassed': Ed Miliband on Daybreak this morning

Grilling: The new Labour leader turned down the chance to propose on air

With dwindling congregations across the country, his laissez-faire attitude to religion might play well with today’s faithless youth.

However, political leaders who admitted a lack of faith have found Number 10 Downing Street beyond their reach.

Both Mr Kinnock and Mr Foot – an associate of the National Secular Society – foundered at the polls.
Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, once said: ‘We don’t do God’ during an interview with Vanity Fair.

However Mr Blair, who stormed to three election victories, was an avowed Christian who even prayed with his ally, President George W Bush. Mr Blair converted to Catholicism on leaving Number 10.

In a separate interview, Mr Miliband admitted that he is ‘very embarrassed’ about failing to register as the father of his child.

He confessed he had blundered by not going to his register office to place his name on the birth certificate of his son Daniel, now 16 months old.

Mr Miliband, 40, who has yet to marry his partner Justine Thornton, told ITV’s Daybreak programme: ‘I’m really embarrassed about this.

‘What happens is if you are partners, rather than married – as we found out after the event – is that when Justine went to register Daniel, she came back and said, “You will never believe it, I can’t register you. You have got to go along to the council offices and make sure you do it”. I am really embarrassed I haven’t.’

Mr Miliband pledged to register as Daniel’s father when the couple’s second child, due in November, is born.

‘We have got a second one on the way and I am going to make sure I do two for the price of one.’
He also said that he and Miss Thornton would marry ‘eventually’.

But asked whether he wanted to propose on live TV, he said: ‘I think it’s better to do it in person, really. I don’t think it would exactly bring out my romantic side to propose on Daybreak, but thanks for the offer anyway.’ 

Mr Miliband faced questions about his private life during a media blitz following his maiden speech as leader at the party conference in Manchester.

This and the fallout of his victory over older brother David dominated his interviews despite his attempts to focus more on policy and his vision for the party.

Ed Miliband is also desperate to shake off his 'Red Ed' tag and claims he is too Left-wing and yesterday enraged the unions by declaring he would not back 'waves of irresponsible strikes'.

His personal set-up has caused consternation since he became the first major political leader in British history not to be married to the mother of his children.

Expecting: Ed Miliband and partner Justine Thornton before his keynote speech in Manchester yesterday

She met Ed Miliband at a party in 2004, when he was still a backroom political adviser and yet to be selected to fight a seat for Labour in the 2005 general election.

She was at the new leader's side as he delivered his maiden speech - although she eschewed the now traditional move to appear on stage and instead just walked in and out of the conference hall with the politician.

He insisted on Daybreak that voters were 'pretty relaxed' over whether or not politicians were married, and said that the important issue was whether a couple provided a stable home for their children.

He said: 'I have a huge belief in the importance of stable family and I think it is so important to say that. What really matters to me is Justine and Daniel and the second son that we have on the way.

'Stable families come in different forms. We happen not to be married. We will get married eventually, but I think it is really important to say that different people can provide stability to their kids - which is the thing that really matters - and to themselves in different ways.'

'I don't think they care one way or the other what people do in their lives, as long as they show responsibility to each other.

'That's the most important thing. I am someone who is responsible and someone who is very, very close to my family.'

He added: 'My love for Justine is very profound and we are a very close unit and we are very much looking forward to the birth of our second child.'

WHY DON'T THEY DO GOD?

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Family: (From left) Marion, her sister Hadassa, David, Ralph and Ed on holiday in 1987

Both Ed and David Miliband have now categorically stated that they do not believe in God.

David was among Gordon Brown's Cabinet ministers in 2007 who said they had no faith.
When asked at the same time, his younger brother insisted religion was a 'private matter' but today he too said he was an atheist.

Their stance stems from their Left-wing secular upbringing by parents Ralph, a celebrated Marxist sociologist and Marion Kozak.

Marion is a Polish Jew who fled the Holocaust, taking shelter in a convent and with a Catholic family before arriving in England.

Ralph Miliband also fled, leaving Belgium with is father in 1940 on one of the last boats out of the country.

The son of Polish Jewish emigres, Ralph was only 16 when he fled Belgium with his father and came to London.

He went on to study English History at technical college, where he became a Marxist and appears to have fully turned his back on religion.

Ed Miliband said yesterday that his 'faith' was founded on family, friendship and opportunity and seeking to improve society.

This appears a clear reflection of his father's Marxist ideals. Karl Marx (right) famously said religion was the 'opium of the people'.

The German philosopher was an atheist and saw religion as an illusion that was used to uphold the social status quo. He felt it was a crutch for the poor that did nothing to address their real, social and economic problems.

His famous quote in full actually reads: 'Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.

'The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.'

Marion Kozak, the daughter of wealthy Jewish parents, miraculously escaped Nazi Germany and was sent to Britain by a Jewish organisation in 1947.

She arrived unable to speak English and with almost no formal education but still reached university at a normal age.

Ralph died in 1994 and both sons are extremely close to their mother and for years, the three all lived very close to each other in north London.

The Jewish Chronicle still claims Mr Miliband is the first member of their faith to lead the Labour Party despite his professed atheism.