Ed Miliband names the day – but not the best man

Ed Miliband has this morning named the day - 27 May - when he will marry his long-term partner Justine Thornton. But he is still in a fog about his best man.

The Mole predicted that Ed would be under pressure to marry his partner - by whom he has two children - from the moment the Palace announced that William and Kate were to be married this spring.

The Miliband announcement came out in an interview with his bride-to-be in their local paper, the Doncaster Free Press.

There remains the question over who is going to be the best man. The word from the bridegroom's camp is that there isn't going to be one. The Mole thinks this is a cop-out for diplomatic reasons.

It would have been natural for Ed to pick his brother, David, to perform the traditional task of handing him the ring and making an embarrassing speech at the wedding feast. After all, Ed was the best man when David got married.

But Ed clearly has been wary of treading on David's sensitivities after snatching the Labour crown from him.

Who else might he ask? The prospect of giving Ed Balls a platform to deliver a series of humiliating stories about his leader would have been too much. Other possible candidates touted include his old boss Gordon Brown, his leadership campaign manager Neil Kinnock, shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan and new-boy Labour MP Chuka Umunna.

It's easy to see why Ed has dithered over having a wedding at all. ·