And the leader of the country's main opposition has it all to play for. Research suggests just two out of ten people think Miliband would make a good prime minister.

Despite being the Oxford and London School of Economics-educated son of a renowned Marxist intellectual, Miliband portrayed himself as a down-to-earth alternative to the Conservative leader and current prime minister, David Cameron:

"You can't be a one-nation Prime Minister if all you do is seek to divide the country, divide the country between North and South, public and private, those who can work and those who can't work. Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, out-of-touch, U-turning, pledge-breaking, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, back-of-the-envelope, miserable shower than this Prime Minister and this government?"

The speech was light on policy specifics but could prove crucial in terms of image-building, calming fears within Labour that the wrong candidate was chosen to replace Gordon Brown as leader.