Blairites must accept Brown is right man for job, says Miliband

Environment Secretary David Miliband has called for New Labour to embrace "Bold Labour" and signalled that Blairites should accept the ascendancy of Gordon Brown or risk isolation.

In his first interview since the Chancellor launched his leadership bid on Friday, Mr Miliband said: "Tony was the right man in 1994 and 1997 but Gordon is the right man now.

"Tony said 10 years was enough. People do want a change now - and not just in personnel but in the way we approach politics and Gordon is best placed to provide that."

In comments which will be interpreted as a warning to Blairites that they must unite behind Mr Brown, Mr Miliband - whom many radical Blairites hoped would take on Gordon Brown - enthusiastically embraced the transition of power to the Chancellor.

"Tony would be the last person to say 'you have to do it all the way I did it'. He used to say to me, 'When I'm gone, they'll say I didn't modernise this or that enough and they will probably be right.'

"Time changes, challenges change. It's about where we are now."

Describing his creed as "Post-Blair politics: not Old Labour but Bold Labour", he added: "My pitch would be that this is a time for searching ourselves and talking about what's gone right and what's not gone right. It requires a different type of politics for today's concerns. It isn't a return to the old ways at all. It just has to be different."

But he staked his own claim to a leading role in Mr Brown's promised "cabinet of all the talents"-saying: "It isn't just about one voice. It's about a chorus of voices."

There was, however, no sign that the Chancellor had consulted the Environment Secretary in any detail about his early policy initiative to create 25 green "eco-towns".