Is Ed Miliband really Labour's worst ever leader? Michael Foot Given how he is remembered, it's surprising to think that Michael Foot was elected as Labour leader, after Callaghan stood down in 1980, as a compromise candidate between the Bennite Left of the party and the Right, represented mainly by Denis Healey. But as soon as he was elected, four senior Right-wing party members - Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers - left t form the Social Democratic Party, pushing the party to the Left. Despite leading the polls early in his leadership, by the time the general election came around, Foot - who had been mocked for wearing a "donkey jacket" to the Remembrance Sunday wreath-laying ceremony - lost in a landslide, their vote split with the SDP. The Labour manifesto, which advocated higher taxes, nuclear disarmament, the abolition of the House of Lords, and the nationalising of the banks, was described by the Right-wing Labour MP Gerald Kaufman as "the longest suicide note in history." Neil Kinnock Kinnock remains the longest-serving leader of the opposition in British history, having led the Labour Party in the wilderness from 1983 to 1992. The first years of his leadership were spent in a bitter fight with the party's Left, particularly the "Militant Tendency," the Trotskyist movement within the party. He was also highly critical of Arthur Scargill and the tactics used in the miners' strike. Despite leading the polls ahead of the 1992 election, Kinnock and his party suffered a shock defeat (leading the Sun to declare it was "the Sun wot won it," after a sustained campaign against him), and was replaced as leader by John Smith. Gordon Brown After Labour, under Tony Blair, won election in a landslide in 1997, Gordon Brown became chancellor of the exchequer, where he remained for almost 10 years. But it was claimed that before the election, in a restaurant in Islington, the pair had agreed that Blair would stand aside to allow Brown to become leader. A decade later, this happened - but only after the two men's relationship had become unworkable, with widespread rumours that Brown was actively sabotaging Blair from within the Treasury. Once in power, Brown looked set for an easy victory over a demoralised Tory party - and he came close to calling an election in the first months of his premiership, while he was riding high in the polls. But he backed away from it, and shortly after the global economy collapsed; then, a series of leadership challenges and defeats in by-elections and local and European elections left him weaker and weaker. In the run-up to the 2010 general election he was caught on microphone calling Gillian Duffy, a Labour voter he had talked to, "a bigoted woman." Labour slumped to defeat in the election and the only saving grace was that despite the party's unpopularity the Tories were unable to achieve a majority. Ed Miliband One of Brown's key aides, Miliband, together with his brother David and his close colleague from the Treasury days Ed Balls, was expected to take a key role as the party came to terms with the end of New Labour and a return to opposition. But David was expected to be the next Labour leader. In the post-election leadership contest, though, Miliband stood - unexpectedly - and, with the support of the Left of the party and the trade unions, beat his brother, in what commentators described as "fratricide" and "stabbing his brother in the back." His awkward personal style, though, has never been popular with the electorate - he has consistently trailed both his party and his opposite number, David Cameron, in terms of popularity, even while Labour has remained ahead in the polls. And various PR gaffes and terrible photo opportunities, including his failure to eat a bacon sandwich and a tweet which described the late Bob Holness as the host of "Blackbusters," have dogged his leadership, as his poll lead against the Tories has gently ebbed. In recent days he has suffered another blow, as rumours of a leadership challenge have swirled around him, although he has denied a plot against him and insisted he will lead the party to the election.