MP and podcast host Ed Miliband has said his dream show guest would be former US president Barack Obama.
The Reasons To Be Cheerful podcast co-host will appear alongside radio personality Geoff Lloyd at the Latitude Festival next weekend.
The duo will sit down with special guests – as yet unannounced – to discuss ideas about “making the country better” in the festival’s SpeakEasy tent, where the theme this year is The World Of Tomorrow.
In 2018 Latitude Festival is excited to host special live editions of @JessieWare's Table Manners 🍽 and @CheerfulPodcast with @Ed_Miliband @GeoffLloyd in The SpeakEasy.🎪 pic.twitter.com/xLpHnvGJ53
— Latitude Festival (@LatitudeFest) March 22, 2018
Mr Miliband told the Press Association: “Our dream guest would be Obama.”
He joked: “I don’t know if he’s going to be at Latitude but I think it’s less about the guests and more about the broad conversation.”
This summer will see the pair embark on a mini-tour, visiting Lunar Festival later this month before heading to the first weekend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The Doncaster North MP, who will reprise his role as temporary Radio 2 host next week, added that he is “incredibly lucky” to be given the opportunity to take over the Jeremy Vine Show, and said he wants to “do as well as I can”.
But he insisted that he does not have plans to switch careers completely.
The former Labour Party leader said: “I’m incredibly committed to carrying on being an MP, because I care a lot about doing that.
“(The podcast) provides other ways of reaching an audience. That’s why I like doing the podcast, that’s why I’m very grateful to be doing the Jeremy Vine Show, because it gives me a chance to talk about things I care about.”
He added that his former job as leader of the opposition restricted the ways in which he could express himself.
The 48-year-old said: “It can be a straitjacket in terms of what you’re able to say but I’m clearly not in that anymore and I have more freedom.”
Mr Miliband will host the show from Monday July 9 to Wednesday July 11.
The Latitude Festival takes place at Henham Park, near Southwold in Suffolk from July 12 until July 15.
Tickets can be found here.