Ralph Milliband Obituary Reprinted In Telegraph Amid Daily Mail Spat With Ed

'A Man Of Great Warmth And Generosity'
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The Telegraph has reprinted their 1994 obituary of Professor Ralph Miliband, as the row between the Daily Mail and Ed Miliband continues.

Many have taken to social media sites to praise the conservative paper's "classy" and "respectful" move, amid a storm of vitriol from The Mail.

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The Telegraph obituary

Readers took to Twitter to compare the paper's "dignified" response to the Mail's "smear campaign":

The obituary tells a very different story to the one the Mail has pushed on readers, describing the Labour leader's father as "an inspiring teacher of politics and an internationally renowned figure of the British Left."

In a direct contrast to The Mail's, 'The Man Who Hated Britain' article – in which the paper stated the Marxist beliefs of Miliband Snr "should disturb everyone who loves this country" – the Telegraph noted that the academic sought to have a balanced view of socialism.

"Though committed to socialism, he never hesitated to criticise its distortion by Stalin and other dictators. He also inveighed against the timidity and limited horizons of West European social democracy. The ideal he sought was a democratic and open Marxism," the paper wrote.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has launched an outspoken attack on the Mail for its founder's support for "the Nazi cause", in the wake of the newspaper’s relentlessly hostile coverage of Miliband’s late father.

Speaking at the Huffington Post UK’s fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday, the Tory backbencher defended the Labour leader's 'right of reply' article in Tuesday’s Mail, in which he accused the paper of a “character assassination” against his father.

The MP’s comments are the strongest condemnation of the Mail so far from a Conservative Party figure. Speaking on the Today programme on Tuesday morning, David Cameron said he understood Miliband’s anger about his father but wouldn’t criticise the Mail, saying he had not read the original piece. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt refused to condemn the Mail as well, preferring to highlight Ralph Miliband’s opposition to free markets in an interview with the BBC News Channel.