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Doors open at the Labour Party conference in Manchester today, as the party contemplates life under a new leader, Ed Miliband.
In a high profile interview this morning Labour's new leader said “the era of New Labour has passed”.
Speaking to Andrew Marr on the BBC, Miliband said a new generation was now in charge and he hoped the party would be united to fight the government, amid fears that the astonishingly close result could lead to discontent within the party.
“Unity is my watchword, I recognise the talent we have across our party,” he said.
“The other thing for our party is humility, because we lost the general election. We are not going to blame the electorate for voting us out.”
Ed Miliband won the Labour leadership by just 1.3 per cent of the vote, coming from behind to pip his brother to the post on the last round of vote allocation. David Miliband secured 49.35 per cent while Ed Miliband won 50.65 per cent.
The total margin of victory in votes for Ed Miliband over his brother was 175,519 to 147,220.
While David secured more votes from MPs and members, Ed crept over the 50 per cent threshold due to greater support from union members.
And he dismissed talk that his reliance on the union vote to secure victory meant he would be under their control. “I'm nobody's man, I'm my own man,” he said.
“If you look at this as a one member one vote system I got more than 170,000 votes,” he said. “It wasn't some block vote system”
"Why did union members vote for me in large numbers? Because I think I was talking about things that matter to working people in this country.”
He added: “All these characterisations about 'Red Ed' are both tiresome and rubbish.”
Asked about what role his brother would play in his shadow cabinet he said it was “too early” to think about what David would do.
His brother “showed amazing generosity” towards him after it was clear who had won, he added.
"We had a brief chat yesterday. He has shown extraordinary generosity and graciousness to me both in public and in private and he now wants me to get on with the job of leading the party,” he said.
Addressing where he thought Labour had gone wrong he said: “At the beginning we were a radical and reforming government...we became he establishment, when you become the establishment you get kicked out of power”
Ed Miliband will give his first leaders speech to the Labour Party conference on Tuesday.
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