He was born in University College Hospital, Bloomsbury, London and raised in Primrose Hill. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. He is the younger son of the Marxist thinker Ralph Miliband. At the London School of Economics, he obtained a Master's degree in Economics, and then became an advisor to Labour politicians such as Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown. At the 2005 general election, he was elected to be the MP for Doncaster North. His first job in government was as the "Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change", which he took up on October 3, 2008 and remained as until Labour lost the 2010 General Election.