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David Miliband will today call for Labour to realign the centre left of British politics, in a speech being billed by aides as the most important of his campaign to lead the party so far.
In what is being seen as an attack on his brother and fellow leadership candidate Ed, the shadow foreign secretary will say Labour needs to build a coalition of broad support and warns against retreating into a left-wing comfort zone.
"To win again we need working class voters, middle class voters, Conservative voters and Lib Dem voters as we drive the Tories out of power,” he will say.
"Opposition is necessary but insufficient. At worst, it can take us back into our comfort zone - and our pantomime role in politics
"We need not just to oppose this government. We need to defeat them. Defeat them through ideas and organisation."
“There is no future for Labour in the comfortable but deadening policies of the past.
"And there is no future in a politics based on a tactical, patchwork approach to building electoral support.
Due to be introduced by shadow home secretary Alan Johnson, he will tell an audience in London that Labour needs to change in order to survive.
"Under my leadership, Labour would renew itself on the basis of a realistic radicalism rooted in the best instincts and values of the British people - and would seek to build a new generation of support across social classes based on principle, not polling."
But writing in the Independent today, Diane Abbott attacks her rivals for the top job in the Labour Party for pursuing right-wing policies in a ill-informed attempt to keep the middle classes on board.
"The danger that the concerns of the middle class will be forgotten in modern politics is illusory," she says.
"But 'Don't forget the middle classes!' is a slogan that is more often than not a coded appeal against shifting Labour policy left of centre. The underlying assumption is that right-wing policies are the only way to appeal to the middle classes."
She adds: "All the evidence is that Middle England is as heartily sick of 'New Labour' as anyone else. It is a marketing brand that has outstayed its welcome.
"If we took a pragmatic view on policy, rather than running like scared rabbits from anything that might be tagged "left wing", we might be surprised what Middle England might support."
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