Ed Miliband, energy minister and brother of foreign secretary, David, was reunited with a long-lost relative during a live phone-in while appearing on a Russian radio station.
Mr Miliband appeared on the Ekho Moskvy programme on Monday to answer questions on climate negotiations and global warming, when an elderly woman phoned in.
Live on air, she said: “My name is Sophia Davidovna Miliband. I am the only remaining relative. I would like to tell him about all his relatives.”
The presenter, Alexei Venediktov, then cut her off, believing she was a hoax-caller but Mr Miliband asked to be given her phone number.
After some investigating, it was revealed that Mr Miliband’s great great grandfather was the brother of Ms Miliband’s grandfather.
They had both been born in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw in Poland.
Mr Miliband then spent the evening looking through photographs with his aunt, an 87-year-old academic.
He later tweeted: “Amazing reunion with long lost relative who called radio phone in. Her grandfather was brother of my great great grandfather making her great great aunt.”
Mr Miliband’s paternal grandparents had fled Poland to Belgium after the First World War but Ms Miliband informed him that some relatives travelled to Warsaw.
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