Ed Miliband sneaks ahead in Labour leadership 'battle of the brothers'

London, May 25 (ANI): Britain's Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has taken a psychological edge over his rivals for the Labour leadership by securing nominations from 35 MPs, two more than the minimum required.

Former Cabinet ministers John Denham and Frank Dobson were among the big names declaring support for Ed Miliband to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour Party's leader.

Ed's brother and the bookmakers' favourite to win, David Miliband, was behind in the list that was published yesterday afternoon with 19 nominations, The Times reports.

Shadow Foreign Secretary David is thought to have the support from over 40 MPs; but aides said he was in no hurry to show his strength when more than a fortnight remains before nominations close.

His camp is irritated by claims yesterday by Diane Abbott that he has as many as 100 MPs lined up to support him. They believe such "mischief-making" is designed to create unrealistic expectations of him.

Many MPs, particularly those newly elected, are reluctant to commit themselves so early in the contest and several are being described as playing "hard to get".

David Miliband on Monday presided over a meeting of women MPs, a key section of the Labour selectorate, where he acknowledged there had been legitimate criticism of the overwhelming male field of candidates, The Times reports.

He promised his campaign would generate fresh ideas about how to bring greater numbers of women into politics "from the bottom up" and engage better with female voters who make up more than half of the British electorate. (ANI)