One of the brains behind New Labour and its "Third Way" policy has defended his party's ideology, saying it has substance.

In a HARDtalk interview on Tuesday 13 August, UK Government Minister David Miliband told Tim Sebastian that the party's challenge was "to keep on making a difference to the lives of people in Britain".

Mr Miliband became the MP for South Shields last year after writing Labour's general election manifesto and heading Tony Blair's policy unit while Labour was in opposition from 1994.

He believed the Prime Minister was concerned about three main issues.

He said: "He wants to build an open society where merit, rather than birth, takes you forward.

"Secondly, a strong civic society, where rights are matched by responsibilities.

"Third, a Britain that is engaged with the outside world, a leader in Europe."

Which way?

Tony Blair's Labour Party enjoys a huge parliamentary majority

Although the party has a huge parliamentary majority and won a second term in office, critics say many British voters have problems understanding what defines "Blairism".

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin have also expressed their doubts about the idea of the "Third Way" - a key phrase used to define New Labour's policies.

Even the British Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, joked at a party conference that when he searched for a book about the Third Way he found it in the "mystery" section.

The big idea

Mr Miliband insisted that a "big idea" was important in order to give the electorate a clear sense of direction.

He told BBC HARDtalk's Tim Sebastian that Labour's political philosophy was very distinctive from that held by the Conservative government in the 1980s.

What you're seeing today is some radical thinking bearing fruit

David Miliband MP

The Conservatives, he said, wanted to get economic efficiency right first, from which social justice would follow.

By contrast, he described the New Labour stance: "You have to get social justice right if you want a strong and dynamic economy".

He explained: "In the 1970s Britain had become the sick man of Europe and British social democracy had become the sick man of the social democratic family.

"There had to be some very hard rethinking about how, in a global economy, with changing individual lifestyles and class structure, social democrats could put into practice those values.

"I think what you're seeing today is some radical thinking bearing fruit."

The interview can be watched in full on Tuesday 13 August on BBC World and BBC News 24 at the following times:

BBC News 24 (times shown in BST) 0430, repeated 2230

BBC World (times shown in GMT) 0330, repeated 0830, 1130, 1530, 1830, 2330