Ticket to ride.. but no one knows who he is: Anonymous David Miliband takes New York subway as he prepares for $460,000 new charity job
David Miliband went practically unnoticed on the New York subway yesterday as he prepared for his new life in America.
The former British Foreign Secretary and Labour MP for South Shields mingled with commuters on his journey with American wife Louise Shackelton and one of their adopted sons.
Mr Miliband, 47, is moving to New York to start a new job at the helm of the International Rescue Committee charity, and may have been house-hunting when he was spotted by a photographer yesterday.
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Former British politician David Miliband, his American wife Louise Shackelton, and one of their adopted American sons ride the NYC subway yesterday
His wife and young son consulted a map to see where they were heading as Mr Miliband gazed into space in the crowded car.
Mr Miliband quit British politics in a move said to be largely inspired by his professional violinist wife, who was angry at the way her husband's politician brother Ed Miliband 'betrayed' him by going for the Labour leadership in 2010.
Sources said David Miliband's younger brother spent months trying to talk him out of the dramatic move, which triggered a by-election in his constituency, but to no avail.
Mr Miliband, who adopted his two young sons in America, is due to take up his $460,000 (£300,000) job as President and CEO of the IRC in September.
The brainchild of Albert Einstein, the charity was set up in 1933 to help Germans suffering under Adolf Hitler's regime.
With an annual income of almost $400m, it employs 12,000 staff in 40 of the world’s poorest countries and in 22 U.S. cities.
Keeping his head down: Mr Miliband, 47, has been criticised for leaving his South Shields constituency, which will hold a by-election in May
Mr Miliband, whose Jewish father and grandfather fled to Britain to escape Nazi perseuction, said that joining the IRC charity will give him the opportunity to help some of the most desperate people in the world.
'The organisation was founded at the suggestion of Albert Einstein in the 1930s for those fleeing the Nazis, so given my own family history there is an additional personal motivation for me,' he said.
It responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives.