国际英语新闻：New British opposition leader marks out his ground

Miliband beat his elder brother David in the leadership race by just over 1 percent of the vote, a tight margin. Under Labor's complicated electoral rules, three groups -- trades unions, members of parliament (legislators), and ordinary members -- each get a one third total of the vote. David Miliband, the older of the two, won the vote among MPs and ordinary members but lost out to Ed in the union section.

This could cause problems for Ed, who is already being portrayed in some parts of the media as being under union control.

He was firm to point out in an interview with the BBC on Sunday when asked if he was the union's man that "I'm nobody's man, I'm my own man. I'm very, very clear on that."

There are 12 unions whose members voted for the Labor leadership, and majorities in only five of them voted for Ed. These were, however, the five largest unions.

Miliband appealed for the unions to behave responsibly. "We've got to have maturity from the trade union movement -- we've got to have responsibility," he said.

It remains to be seen if he will be able to influence the unions, or if they are determined to carry out strikes that will prove unpopular with the electorate and cause Labor electoral harm.