Ed Miliband vs Boris Johnson on the Andrew Marr Show sketch: Roll up, roll up – it's the Ed and Boris verbal jousting show

Ed Miliband’s meta-morphosis from geek to smart politician took another step forward when he verbally wrestled Boris Johnson on a sofa on The Andrew Marr Show.

London’s Mayor is by general acclaim the wittiest performer in modern politics. Miliband is the one who cannot eat a bacon sandwich. So it should have been an easy win for Johnson yesterday. Instead it was pure entertainment, a heated, excited dialogue that promised that Prime Minister’s Questions could be endless fun, if one of these two were Prime Minister and the other were leading the opposition.

When their opening joust about rich people who are non-domiciled for tax purposes was getting nowhere, Johnson suddenly introduced the topic of where they spent their school days. He wanted to stress the similarity of their educational backgrounds, Ed Miliband preferred to emphasise the differences, but then Johnson pointed at Andrew Marr and declared: “Neither of us went to a school as smart as Loretto.”

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Loretto is a public school in East Lothian of which Marr is an alumnus, though whether it is smarter than Eton College, Boris’s alma mater, is debatable.

Meanwhile, the conversation careered onwards like a car with no brakes on a steep downward slope.

Marr inquired whether it was fair to say that Ed Miliband had stabbed David Miliband in the back by entering the contest to be Labour leader. Ed’s response was to imply that Boris was too decent to make such an awful accusation unless told to by the Conservatives’ highly paid Australian political strategist, Lynton Crosby.

Johnson exclaimed: “He would do more damage to this country than his brother!”

Did he mean that the damage Ed would do to Dave exceeded the damage Ed would do to the UK, or that either of the Miliband brother would damage the UK, but Ed more so than David? I have no idea.

Ancestry

Ed Miliband’s parents were refugees escaping the Nazis. Boris Johnson has claimed that his great-great-grandmother was a Circassian sold as a slave to a Russian.

Primrose Hill

Both grew up in north London, and went to Primrose Hill primary school, but not at the same time. Johnson is five years older than Miliband.

University

Both studied at Oxford University, and engaged in student politics.

Political families

Each has a brother who is/was an MP, though Johnson says he and his brother, Jo, would not run against each other for leadership of their party.