Alan Milburn: Labour 'can't wonk to win'

Alan Milburn has waded into Labour's leadership contest, warning the candidates not to focus on policy but on personality and leadership.

"We can't wonk to win," he told a press conference, a reference to the slang name for Westminster policy experts sometimes used about Ed Miliband.

The former health secretary was a leading supporter of Tony Blair in government.

And he urged the party to learn from Mr Blair about how to win power.

He said Labour had the "wrong leader" and the "wrong approach" at the general election and needed a new leader who can "sit comfortably on, own and dominate" political territory currently occupied by the Conservatives.

Under Ed Miliband, Labour had tried to "defy the laws of political gravity" and had "bet the house on the country moving to the left," argued the former MP, while, on issues like welfare and immigration, the electorate arguably went the other way.

"We drove voters into the arms of the Conservatives. There was no great appetite in the country for David Cameron," said Mr Milburn.

Labour, he said, seems "determined to forget how it won elections" between 1997 and 2005, with its leaders since 2007 "deliberately and destructively turning their back on the formula" which carried the party into power.

He suggested Labour needed to "come to terms" with Tony Blair's legacy if it is ever to make progress.

But he insisted he was not urging a return to New Labour and the party must, instead, build a "new proposition" in response to the rise of "identity politics", exemplified by UKIP and the SNP.

Alan Milburn offers a clarity of analysis of Labour's current predicament which demands a reaction.

For some within the party that will be a cheer, for others a shrug.

It is no surprise Mr Milburn would offer such a devastating critique of Ed Miliband's failings - he is widely seen as a Blairite ultra, committed to the centre ground.

Two asides in his speech, one at the very beginning, one at the very end, offered an insight into how he perceives himself - and his influence within his party.

"It is unusual for me to be introduced as someone from the left," Alan Milburn said as he started.

"I hope someone, somewhere, is listening," he said as he finished.

Speaking at the Centre for Social Justice, the think tank founded by Conservative work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, Mr Milburn offered some blunt advice to the four candidates vying to be Labour's next leader.

"We can't wonk to win. Don't assume that the answer lies in better policy. There are three more Ps that count," he said.

"The first is personality - it matters that the leader and their team look like they can do the job and look the part. The second is purpose - work out what you are for.

"The third is position - work out how to get there."

He endorsed, Liz Kendall, often portrayed as the Blairite candidate in Labour's leadership contest, praising her "fresh perspective" but adding that he did not know if his endorsement would be a "blessing or a curse".

He also spoke warmly about Stella Creasy and Caroline Flint, two candidates for the deputy leadership.

Mr Milburn, who has built a career in business and chaired the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission since standing down as an MP in 2010, said Labour needs to be "brutally honest" about what he said was its worse defeat for three decades.

He said it was time for Labour to "wake up and smell the coffee" and warned that winning power in 2020 would be a "pretty tall order".