David Miliband

David has been MP for South Shields since June 2001. His wife Louise plays the violin for the London Symphony Orchestra, and they divide their time between London and South Shields. David is married with two children.

David was born in London and went to primary school near Leeds where he also attended Benton Park Secondary School for a year. However the bulk of his secondary education was at Haverstock Comprehensive School in London.

He studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1988/9 he won a Kennedy Scholarship to study for a Masters' Degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

David's first job was in the voluntary sector, working for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. He was then Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and from 1992-94 Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice, set up by the then Leader of the Labour Party, John Smith, to work out new approaches to welfare policy.

From 1994 to 1997 David worked as Head of Policy for Tony Blair, working on the policies that would help Labour into government. He was then Head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit in Downing Street during Labour's first term in office from 1997 to 2001. He helped found the Centre for European Reform, and has edited two books, Reinventing the Left, and Paying for Inequality.

David is a member of the Whiteleas and Cleadon Social Clubs, as well as President of South Shields Football Club - The Mariner