One in, one out: David Miliband prepares to leave Labour stage

The shadow foreign secretary is widely expected to end his top-level political career today by confirming he will not seek election to serve in his brother's first frontbench team.

The elder Miliband's fate was effectively sealed after footage emerged of him criticising his brother's speech at the party conference in Manchester yesterday.

The Labour leader said the decision on his future was a matter for his brother but told the Press Association: "I think he has an extraordinary amount to offer British politics.

"But he makes his own decisions about that and I know he will do the right thing."

He added: "The party will always want to use his talents but he makes his own decisions about what is right for him and what he wants to do and I very much respect whatever decisions he comes to.

"I will be working very closely with him whatever he decides to do.

"He will be around in one way or another and I will certainly be using his expertise either inside the shadow cabinet or outside the shadow cabinet."

Mr Miliband's crucial conference speech yesterday was overshadowed by his brother's comment on the divisive issue of Iraq.

As the new leader sought to distance himself from the former New Labour regime by branding the invasion of Iraq "wrong", David was seen turning to deputy leader Harriet Harman and saying: "You voted for it, why are you clapping?"

The ITV News camera caught Mrs Harman responding: "I'm clapping because he is the leader. I'm supporting him."

But even before that footage emerged speculation had been mounting that Mr Miliband would refuse to serve under his brother after suffering a narrow defeat in the leadership election.

The strain of the contest on the family was demonstrated on Monday when David's wife Louise was spotted in tears backstage after he delivered a speech appealing for Labour to unify behind Ed.

But Mr Miliband insisted today he felt no guilt about running against his older brother, who had originally been the favourite to win the race to succeed Gordon Brown.

The Labour leader said: "I think I did the right thing. I became increasingly confident as the leadership campaign went on that I was doing the right thing because I had a distinctive message about the way Labour needed to change. You saw that in my speech yesterday.

"I think I had the best chance of taking this party forward and winning the next general election.

"The most important people in this are not us, not me or David, the most important people are the British people and I think the British people are much better off with a Labour government, but I need to convince them of that and I think I'm the best person to do it."

As well as on Iraq, Mr Miliband used yesterday's speech to signal that a "new generation" is in charge of Labour and disowned large swathes of the previous government's record, condemning the imposition of tuition fees, lax regulation of the City and Gordon Brown's claim to have ended boom and bust.

Seeking to shake off the "Red Ed" tag applied by critics, he insisted he would have "no truck" with irresponsible strikes called by the unions whose votes propelled him to victory.

Mr Miliband also shifted the party's economic position to give more scope to attack the coalition's deep public spending cuts, lambasting David Cameron's austerity measures as "miserable" and "irresponsible".

He signalled that while Labour's current commitment of halving the deficit over four years could be downgraded not all the cuts proposed by the Government could be opposed.

Mr Miliband told the Press Association: "I was trying to say that there were big achievements in the last government, we got some things wrong.

"The reason we got some things wrong was we got stuck in old ideas and we've got to change.

"I'm under no illusions about the scale of the task which faces us to win back public trust.

"I started out on that journey yesterday. I'm pleased by the reaction I have received from people but I am under no illusions about the long way we have to go."

Mr Miliband said: "I'm confident but not arrogant. I think that's very important.

"We have to be humble about where we went wrong. We have to recognise the scale of the task that faces us and I very much do recognise the scale of the task that faces us.

"I'm very much looking forward and relishing this job. I've very much enjoyed my first three and a half days or so in this job and I'm going to keep enjoying it.

"That's the way you've got to approach this. It's a big challenge but it's a challenge I'm enjoying."

While the younger Miliband may have enjoyed the period since he won the leadership race on Saturday, his vanquished brother last night left the conference in Manchester to return to his home in London.

He is expected to announce a decision on his future later today, which could bring to an end a frontbench career which included serving as foreign secretary under Mr Brown.

Asked if David's departure would "cast a shadow" over his leadership, Ed Miliband told BBC1's Breakfast: "I don't think it would cast a shadow. I think it is most important that he does the right thing for himself.

"I know he will make a big contribution to politics in the future and he will have different ways of doing it, either inside the shadow cabinet or outside the shadow cabinet, but I think that is his decision.

"He has just been through a leadership contest, and a leadership contest he lost, and I think he has got to decide what he wants to do and it is most important that he makes the right decision for himself and his family and a decision he is comfortable with.

"That's why I am giving him the space to do it."

David was already well aware of his views on Iraq before his speech to the conference yesterday, said Mr Miliband.

"I don't think my views on Iraq will have come as a surprise to David, because we did 40 or 50 hustings during this campaign and most of them had a question about Iraq and we expressed a different view.

"I lead this party now and it is right that I say to the public - because it is about the public, it isn't about me and David - where I stand on the big issues, and Iraq is one of the big issues."

Mr Miliband said he was under no illusions about the scale of the task facing him to win back voters' trust.

"It is a long journey for us as a political party and this week is just base camp for us," he told BBC1's Breakfast.

"We have got to show the country that we get it about some of the mistakes that we made. We have got to show we can be a responsible and constructive opposition and then we have got to construct an alternative plan for government."

He accepted that he bore responsibility for some of the decisions taken by Labour in government, as a Cabinet minister, the author of the general election manifesto and a senior adviser even before he was elected to Parliament in 2005.

"I take my responsibility for what went right and what went wrong in the government, but I think there is no question that I am from a younger generation from the Blair/Brown generation," he said.

"We have got different attitudes, different views about things, whether it is about issues to do with foreign policy or how we run our economy, regulation of the City, bankers' bonuses, some of the issues about welfare, responding to immigration.

"It is right that Labour moves on and turns the page and that is what my leadership is going to be about."

He brushed off suggestions that his election as leader was in question because he relied on union support to win, while his brother took the majority of votes among MPs and party members.

"I won with the support of party members, trade union members and members of the Parliamentary Labour Party," said Ed Miliband.

"We have an electoral system and you don't change the electoral system after the result is declared.

"I got more individual votes than any other candidate in this election, more individual votes than David Cameron or Nick Clegg got in their elections. I'm very proud of the support I received from 170,000 people in this election."

He insisted he was not in thrall to the unions because of the support they gave him: "I am my own man. I say what I think.

"I think trade unions have a really important role to play in our society. There will be people watching this programme who are finding life stressed at work and are under pressure from employers, who need the representation of unions.

"But at the same time, I am going to have no truck with irresponsible trade unions and irresponsible waves of strikes.

"I am making pretty clear that unions have a heavy responsibility, which is that when they think about their opposition to cuts, they need to do so in a way that doesn't alienate the public and harm the people they serve.

"I am not going to give you in advance my view about every piece of industrial action that may or may not happen. I am sending a pretty clear message about responsibility in the trade unions."

Ed Miliband said he did not think he had betrayed his brother by standing against him for the leadership.

"I don't, I don't think he feels that either," he told Sky News.

Mr Miliband said his brother would make an announcement about his plans later today.

"I would say he needs to make the right decision for himself and his family, and his political party, and the country. I think it's really important, that. That's what he'll do," he said.

"I know he's got a big contribution to make to politics in the future. Whatever decision he makes, he will make a contribution."

He added: "Whatever decision he makes, I will support him."

Mr Miliband said he was relaxed about his "Red Ed" nickname.

"I'm not angry about it," he told Sky News.

"I'm relaxed about what people call me but I slightly think politics needs to grow up a bit, the way we cover politics needs to grow up a bit.

"The idea that I want to return to the 1970s, which I guess is what 'Red Ed' is supposed to imply, is obviously nonsense."

On Iraq, the Labour leader said the party needs to show humility.

"I'm under no illusions about the scale of the challenge we face. The journey begins with humility about our record," he said.

Asked if he was worried about what he had done to his brother, Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today: "I worry always about the effects of any decisions I make on my family because family comes first.

"But I thought it was the right thing to do to stand in this election because I had a distinctive message.

"Of course I worry about him and my family but I think it was right to stand."

Asked if he felt he had stolen his brother's crown, Mr Miliband said: "No, it isn't the way I see it, because I think it wasn't me, it was the Labour Party that made its decision.

"People want to talk about me and David, and it is a fascinating story, but really I think what we have got to get on and talk about is the country, that is what we as a Labour Party have a real duty to do."

Put to him that he looked "gobsmacked" when he won the leadership, he said: "Well, maybe that is just the way I look. I wasn't actually, I was reasonably confident about the prospect of winning. I was obviously delighted."

He had "absolutely" thought about the implications it would have on his relationship with David: "I thought about it long and hard. The biggest obstacle for me standing in this contest was the relationship with David, because I thought long and hard about it.

"But in the end I concluded that if I had something to say which was distinctive, if I felt I would be the best leader of this party, for me not to stand in those circumstances would actually be an abdication of my responsibility, my responsibility to this party, my responsibility to this country and that is why I stood.

"My love for David is very deep, and his for me is too. It has been a difficult time, obviously, but it will withstand this."

He added: "The first reaction he had when we were told in the room that I had won was great warmth from him and great encouragement ... and that shows what a remarkable person he is."

Put to him that his brother David was "infuriated" with him over his stance on Iraq, Mr Miliband told Today: "I don't think he is infuriated at all, because we had lots of leadership debates or hustings during this campaign where we had and showed we had different views on Iraq.

"My view on Iraq at the time was the weapons inspectors should have been given more time, but frankly that is not the important issue - the important issue is, what view do we take now?

"Iraq led to fundamental loss of trust for us as a government and what is crucial for me is that we show humility this week, and we show we understand the reasons we lost trust and Iraq was one of those reasons and I have got to be honest about that as leader of this party."

Mr Miliband said he wasn't trying to "deny" his associations with the previous Labour government but added: "The real issue is, do you have the courage and the humility to change and recognise where you went wrong?"

He denied he was an "opportunist" over the failings he had highlighted in his speech.

He went on: "I have a mandate to lead this party. My mandate is to get this party back into power. That is the mandate I have been given and I am going to do that to the best of my ability.

"I have been overwhelmed in the last few days with the sense of the desire for unity among my colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party, in the party in the country.

"What people want is no more factionalism, what people want is a leader who they can unite around and who will use talents from across the teams that fought this leadership election and those that didn't.

"I will absolutely do that. There is huge talent in our party. The past is another country as far as I am concerned, as far as the leadership election is concerned. We move forward as a united team."