Exclusive: Ed Miliband's first ever TV appearance as a fresh-faced student

Ed Miliband was confronted with his younger self when he was interviewed by ITV News Meridian.

After taking questions from political correspondent Phil Hornby about the election battle in the south of England, he was asked to watch a video of his first ever television appearance.

It showed Ed Miliband - or, as he preferred then, Ted Miliband - leading a rent strike on behalf of Oxford students in the spring of 1991.

A slim, youthful-looking Miliband is heard arguing against the iniquity of a 27 per cent proposed rise.

Anxious spin doctors in attendance for the interview, to be broadcast tonight on ITV in the Meridian region, were relieved that 'Ted' was wearing nothing more extreme than a woolly grey jumper - no Che Guevera T-shirt or Afghan coat.

The Labour leader said he was delighted with the 10-second clip, which he had forgotten about, and said he had not seen it since ITV regional news interviewed him at the university in 1991.