Labour MP's son for Christmas

Cabinet Office Minister David Miliband has adopted a baby from the United States, it was reported today.

Mr Miliband, a rising star of Tony Blair's government, flew to America with his wife Louise to be present at the birth of the child.

The baby, named Isaac James Miliband, is the couple's first child and was born on Monday, 13 December weighing 7lb.

Isaac was taken from his natural mother and handed to the couple, who flew back to their London home on Christmas Eve.

Mr Miliband, 39, the MP for South Shields, said he and his wife were "delighted" to have adopted the baby.

"This is a wonderful end to the year for Louise and I, and our families.

" We are absolutely delighted and we are looking forward to all the joys and challenges of parenthood.

"We are really looking forward to introducing our youngster to the North-East, which we will be doing in the New Year," he told his local paper the Shields Gazette.

Mr Miliband was promoted to Cabinet Office minister in the reshuffle caused by David Blunkett's resignation as Home Secretary. Prior to that he had enjoyed a successful stint as Schools Minister.

The couple, who split their time between homes in South Shields and London, first met on a flight to Rome in 1995.

Mrs Miliband grew up and went to university in the US and spent much of her early career in the country. An accomplished cellist, she is a director of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Mr Miliband was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive in London, Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been tipped as a future leader of the Labour Party.

A family friend in South Shields said: "David and Louise have always wanted to start a family.

"This is great news for them and I'm sure they will put their heart and soul into being good parents." Before entering Parliament as MP for South Shields in 2001, he was head of the Prime Minister's policy unit, from 1997, and head of policy to the leader of the Opposition from

1994.

From 1989 to 1994 Mr Miliband was Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research and from 1992 to 1994 Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice.

In 1994 he edited Reinventing the Left and co-edited Paying for Inequality (also 1994).

He was a founder of the Centre for European Reform, is President of South Shields Football Club and a member of the Whiteleas and Cleadon social clubs in the town .

His late father Ralph Miliband was an eminent Left-wing historian and one of the foremost Marxist theorists of the 20th century, who argued that the Labour party would never do anything for the working classes.