Ken Livingstone urges Ed Miliband to learn from New Labour mistakes

Former mayor Mr Livingstone called on Mr Miliband to "learn from the mistakes" of New Labour in a clear bid to distance himself for the party's recent past.

He urged party chiefs to argue for greater public investment despite the huge deficit — a position shared by the Left of the party and the unions. Mr Livingstone has come first in a poll to join Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, putting him in a powerful position to influence the future direction of the party.

He told the Standard: "Party members want to move beyond New and Old Labour and work together to take on the government. This result shows the urgent need for unity against the Government's cuts to our quality of life.

"It is vital that the Labour Party learns from the mistakes of New labour and sets out a new direction. This means investing in public services and new jobs, fighting the cuts and building hundreds of thousands of new homes."

But many Labour MPs and officials fear that such a lurch to the Left would be political suicide for the party.

One shadow minister told the Standard: "It would be disastrous. We don't stand a chance of winning back London — or the country — if Ken goes back to his socialist roots. He needs to accept that we need the middle classes and the City onside to win."

Mr Livingstone pledged to work closely with fellow Left-winger Mr Miliband to take on Boris Johnson in the race for City Hall.

"Ed Miliband understands the importance of London to the rest of the country," he said.

He stressed the importance of building a "broad coalition" of support — a clear pitch to the right of the party and "squeezed middle" voters in the capital who will be key to Labour winning in 2012.

At the last election he was accused of neglecting large swathes of the capital's population, including outer Londoners and the middle classes, which cost him his mayoralty.

But Mr Livingstone shrugged off his Red Ken nickname — which has also been applied to new leader Mr Miliband. However, asked by ITN whether Mr Miliband's leadership represented a lurch to the Left for the Labour party he replied: "If only it would. Sadly it won't."

Mr Livingstone topped the NEC poll with 88,235 votes and was followed by Oona King, who he beat to the Labour mayoral nomination, on 64,004.
Ms King hit out at the Labour party's voting system. The former MP told a fringe meeting: "I think in all seriousness we do need to look at the situation in the Labour party. Ken had the backing of nine of 11 trade unions and that meant it was impossible for me to get my message to them. In the 21st century that's not democratic enough."

Labour must develop policies around "flag, family and faith" to fight a new populist Right-wing movement. Jon Cruddas, the Left-wing MP for Dagenham, called for a greater focus on national identity to stop it being hijacked by extremists — warning that a movement similar to the Tea Party in the US could spread across the UK.