David Miliband urges Labour to end feuding

Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband today sought to distance himself from the party feuding reignited by Tony Blair's new book, declaring that he wanted to lead "a government not a gang". As ballot papers went out to eligible voters, Miliband sent an email to all party members in which he said he was "sick and tired" of seeing the leadership race characterised in terms of a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour. Instead, the shadow foreign secretary pledged to "change the way we do politics" and said he was "ready to lead". Miliband dispatched the email to members after the publication yesterday of Blair's autobiography, which charted the former PM's deteriorating relationship with Brown. Urging members to give him their vote, Miliband said: "I respect both Tony and Gordon deeply. But their time has passed. Their names do not appear on the leadership ballots. And now we need to stop their achievements being sidelined and their failings holding us back." He said those who presented the Labour leadership contest as a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour were doing a disservice to all of the candidates and to the thousands of members who have participated over the last few months. The leadership election was about "pulling together all the talents of our party" rather than "tired old Westminster games", he said. In a nod to the warring Blair and Brown camps during Labour's first 10 years, Miliband said: "I want to change the way we do politics. Because I want to lead a government not a gang, a movement not a machine, where honest debate can be a source of strength, not a sign of weakness." In the book, Blair describes David Miliband as having "clear leadership qualities". Last night, Miliband sought to distance himself from his old political patron by insisting that if he became leader, he would stick to the "Labour way" of tackling the deficit, which was to halve it over four years. In his book, A Journey, the former prime minister issued a stark warning to the party not to drift to the left and said he believed Labour lost the general election in May because it "stopped being New Labour" under Brown's leadership. Blair also came close to endorsing the economic strategy of the Conservative-led coalition government. Miliband rejected the accusation that he was the "heir to Blair" when it was put to him during last night's leadership debate on Channel 4 News. "I am my own person. I look forward to the day when Tony says he is a Milibandite rather than people asking me whether I'm a Blairite," he said. But he added: "Whoever becomes the party leader will become the heir to Gordon Brown's leadership of the Labour party. Few people would say I was the continuity candidate with Gordon." In what will be seen as a thinly-veiled attack on his older brother, Ed Miliband said during the debate that Blair "along with others" was stuck in a "New Labour comfort zone". He said: "The truth is that unless we change our attitude on a whole range of things that New Labour took for granted, like flexible labour markets that mean low pay and bad working conditions for people, tuition fees and ID cards, unless we change we are not going to win again. So Tony was a great servant to us in the past, I don't think he's right about the future." The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, claimed New Labour was seen as "hollow and disconnected" and said: "When Tony Blair says we don't need to move a millimetre away from New Labour I think he has not been on doorsteps recently and he has not recognised how we came to be seen." Leftwinger Diane Abbott issued a broadside on the Blair-Brown era by saying New Labour had "frayed" some of the community ties because of its obsession with markets. In a speech on how Labour should respond to the government's "big society" agenda, delivered today, she said: "I believe that it is time issues around family and community took centre stage in the debate about what the Labour party is for," she said. "New Labour regarded mutual organisation and co-ops as dusty and old fashioned compared to the bright shiny world of the free markets and international financial services. But now unfettered free markets have nearly crashed the world economy, maybe it is time for the Labour party to rediscover some of those old models. They might provide appropriate structures going forward for banks like Northern Rock currently in government ownership." As contenders bid to succeed Brown, the former premier revealed he going to work on projects including promoting global access to education and boosting internet use in Africa.