The relationships between narrative and leadership,between rhetoric and performance, between doctrine and its voicing, are crucialto party politics and are underrated by both practising politicians andscholars. This study analyses the performance of leadership in the UK LabourParty, and what this means for a new approach to understanding politics. Themain focus of this study is the five-year leadership of Ed Miliband, 2010-2015.The fortunes of the party and the party leadership can be apprehended as aseries of performed rhetorical events. A political leaders persona is aconstruction that performs rather like an actor in the political space. Theauthor identifies and analyses the architecture and the modalities ofleadership persona construction and performance in contemporary politics.

John Gaffney isProfessor of Politics at Aston University, Birmingham, UK and Co-Director ofthe Aston Centre for Europe.

Acknowledgements.- List of Abbreviations.- Listof Figures.- 1.Political Leadership, Rhetoric and Culture: Aristotle Good, MaxWeber Bad.- 2.Leadership Lessons from the Past.- 3.The Arc of Rhetoric and theLeader as Author.- 4.Rhetoric and Performance: Milibands Finest Hour(sixty-four minutes and forty seven seconds, in fact).- 5.Narrative Collapseand the Teller Without a Tale.- 6.Conclusion: Narrative, Rhetoric and thePersonalized Political