 Miliband was portrayed during Labour 's 2015 election campaign as being genuine in his desire to improve the lives of working people and to display progression from New Labour , but unable to defeat interpretations of him as being ineffectual , or even cartoonish in nature . Political illustrators perceived a resemblance to Wallace of the British animation Wallace and Gromit and greatly exaggerated this in caricatures ; various images also surfaced of Miliband performing tasks such as eating a sandwich , donating money to a beggar , smiling , and giving a kiss to his wife , all while displaying apparently unnatural or awkward facial expressions . In a March 2015 Newsnight election debate , he was challenged by Jeremy Paxman as to whether or not he was ' tough enough ' to be Prime Minister , famously responding , " Hell yes , I 'm tough enough , " in reference to his reluctance to support air strikes against extremist targets in Syria . 
