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

Miliband, aged 40, is the youngest of Labor's ten leaders since the Second World War and although he is younger than his predecessor but one, Tony Blair, who was elected leader at 41, he has had more government experience.

Blair had no experience in government when he was elected, whereas Miliband was a government minister for three years and a Cabinet member for just under two years. If Miliband wins the next general election, scheduled for 2015, he will be 45, older than Blair, who first took office when he was 43.

For parochial British politics, Miliband also represents a significant change. He represents the end of New Labor, the rebranding and redirecting of the Labor party away from its socialist roots which began in 1994 under leader Tony Blair.

That redirection, and the personal antagonism between Blair and his successor Gordon Brown were the defining characteristics of the New Labor era.

Miliband declared Blair's New Labor as dead. "The era of New Labor has passed," he told the BBC.