seeing red: David Miliband in dig at brother over Iraq

Jonathan Reed Political Editor

NEW Labour leader Ed Miliband’s attempt to shake off his “Red Ed” tag in his first full party conference speech as leader was threatening to be overshadowed last night by fresh signs of a rift with brother David.

The Doncaster North MP criticised large slices of New Labour’s record in office in his first full conference speech as leader but said a “new generation” hungry for change offered optimism in contrast to the “miserable, pessimistic view” of the coalition.

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He sought to reassure those concerned about the union backing which swept him by power by criticising “overblown rhetoric” on strikes and saying Labour must stomach some unsavoury cuts proposed by the coalition in order to tackle the deficit – but also warned against “making a bad situation worse” by cutting too fast.

To those who have branded him “Red Ed”, he said: “Come off it. Let’s start to have a grown-up debate in this country about who we are and where we want to go and what kind of country we want to leave for our kids.”

But last night his attempt to restore party unity after the leadership contest was undermined when defeated brother David was caught on tape making a barbed comment to the party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman as tensions within the Miliband family over Ed’s win appeared to spill over.

Following a key passage where Ed condemned the invasion of Iraq as “wrong”, his elder brother was said to have turned to Mrs Harman sitting next to him and said: “You voted for it, why are Continued on Page 4.

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