Ed Miliband: Photo opportunities are part of the business

In July, Ed Miliband appeared to turn his back on photo opportunities after battling with a bacon sandwich and coming off worse.

If you want a politician who thinks that a good photo is the most important thing, then don't vote for me. Because I don’t.

Here’s the thing: I believe that people would quite like somebody to stand up and say there is more to politics than the photo-op. And that culture diminishes our politics.

• Ed Miliband, July

Today, that message appears to have softened, as he told Red magazine: "I’m not saying that having a photo taken and all of that isn’t part of the business. But people hate our political culture: you’ve got to ask why a decreasing number of people are interested in politics. And I think part of it is they think we are obsessed by triviality; superficiality, not substance."

Here is a picture of the Labour leader that appears alongside the interview:

Elsewhere, Miliband says his goal if elected prime minister is to have a Cabinet with an equal number of men and women.

“I’m proud of the fact that there are more women in the shadow cabinet – but it’s not enough. We’ve got to get to 50 per cent in the future, and we’ve got to get to 50 per cent of women MPs in parliament for Labour. I said in my conference speech last year, that there was a new feminist movement not satisfied that 40 per cent of Labour’s shadow cabinet are women, and they’re right.”

The full interview appears in the October issue of Red, on sale September 4.

Read more at redonline.co.uk.

(Picture: Hamish Brown/Red)

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