Labour leader empathised with his audience and asked for further explanations from people who challenged him
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Ed Miliband showed today why he still retains the qualities that impressed Labour members during the 2010 leadership contest. Photograph: David Jones/PA
Faced by a prime minister who usually dominates the landscape at Westminster, Ed Miliband occasionally has a rather forlorn look.
So Labour party members were delighted this morning when Miliband gave them a reminder of why he made such an impression in the 2010 leadership. He may have needed union votes but Miliband would never have won in 2010 without his strong performance at Labour party hustings across the country.
At the launch of the Labour local election campaign in Birmingham Selly Oak this morning, Miliband showed he has not lost his touch. In doing so he showed why he is cut from such a different cloth to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and – yes – to David Cameron.
The prime minister is very polished at public events and usually answers most questions. But he is that: polished and slightly distant. Miliband, on the other hand, completely engages with his audience, emotionally and intellectually. He doesn't just remember the name of every person who asks him a question and asks their name if they forget to give it. He refers back specifically to what they said and then does his best to address the issue they have raised.
There were two striking examples this morning of these personal skills which prompted some supporters of Miliband in 2010 to suggest he had a touch of the Bobby Kennedy about him:
• The tough question. Sue Davies, 66, a lifelong Labour member, said she was deeply frustrated because she works with working class people disillusioned with politics:
I believe you are not doing anything to get those people out and voting.
Miliband asked Davies to give him an example of what Labour should be doing. She asked why people should be working to the age of 70 while paying dole money to their grandchildren. The Labour leader did not entirely agree with her objection to requiring older people to work. But he sympathised with her concerns about the alienation of many voters:
This is the most important question that has been asked so far, if I can say that. Look, in the end you've got to start from where people are. What is the most depressing I find when knocking on people's doors? It is not that when they say I am voting Tory or Liberal Democrat. That is pretty depressing. The most depressing thing is what you say: which is people say you are all the same. They say something ruder than that.
Now, why am I here? I am here because both my parents were refugees, refugees from the Nazis. If you said to either of them – my father is no longer alive – politics doesn't make a difference they'd say come off it. Politics is not a matter, most of the time in our country, of life and death. But it is still fundamental.
Miliband said the key lesson is not to over-promise and then under-deliver.
• The moving question. Jan introduced herself as a former teacher who has lived on a local council estate for vulnerable adults after she developed a long term mental health condition. She asked Miliband to engage in a dialogue with Disability Rights UK which is campaigning for the de-stigmatisation of people with long term disabilities who are being "systematically persecuted" by the DWP.
Miliband said to Jan:
Jan. I totally understand why a lot of the language that is used – and this is why I am quite careful about the language I use about people on Employment Support Allowance – seems very stigmatising. All of us believe that if you can work you should work. And most people who can work want to work. But it is incredibly important that for those people who cannot work for whatever reason there is both compassion and support. You mentioned dialogue – I am very very happy to have that dialogue.
Miliband probably connects more effectively at relatively small public events than any other UK political leader. The challenge is to translate that onto a wider stage.