Yesterday evening’s public discussion at LSE, which Chartwell attended, saw Mehdi Hasan (Senior Editor at the New Statesman) and Charlie Beckett (Director of POLIS) examine Labour leader Ed Miliband’s current performance and future prospects.

Mehdi argued that it would be dangerous to underestimate Ed Miliband, as his brother David discovered after losing the Labour leadership election earlier this year from a seemingly unassailable position as clear favourite. During the evening, Mehdi also provided fascinating insights into the relationship between the brothers, describing it as ‘very close, but very formal’ and claimed that David Miliband is ‘still not over losing to his brother’.

Charlie Beckett pointed out that the Labour leader would have to articulate a clearer policy platform to appeal to voters, as well as drastically improving his media image.

The event coincided with the release of the book Ed: “The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader”, which was authored by James Macintyre and Mehdi Hasan.

Mehdi Hasan is Senior Editor (Politics) at the New Statesman and is a former current affairs editor at Channel 4. He is a regular guest and public speaker on the BBC’s Question Time and The Big Questions, and also appears on BBC News, Sky News, Al Jazeera and LBC, where he is a guest presenter.

Charlie Beckett is the founding director of POLIS, the  journalism and society think-tank at the London School of Economics, Media and Communications Department. He is a regular media commentator and previously spent 20 years working for news and current affairs programmes at the BBC, LWT and Channel 4 News at ITN.