Miliband rallies party without disloyalty

And Mr Miliband was clearly alive to this scrutiny. The Foreign Secretary decided to adopt the safest tactic for avoiding a potential banana skin on the run-up to the most important speech of his political career by keeping hold of it.

As he walked into the Manchester conference centre clutching his banana in the fashion of a handgun, one photographer was prompted to plead: "Don't shoot."

But in his highly anticipated speech to the party conference, Mr Miliband burnished his Labour leadership credentials as he urged the party to end its "defeatism" and believe it can win the next general election.

He issued a rallying cry that David Cameron's Tories were "beatable" if Labour proved it was the party of change. While careful to praise Gordon Brown in his speech, Mr Miliband made clear the party could turn round the polls by seizing every opportunity to argue for a fairer Britain.

He left open the question of his own ambitions, saying instead that "any age of massive change needs leadership from the party of change".

From Britain's performance at the Beijing Olympics to recent bans on cluster bombs to the bravery of UK troops in Afghanistan, he said the country should be proud of its standing on the world stage. He stressed that a similar optimism should be transferred to Labour's own hopes for the next election.

In his most personal speech to date, Mr Miliband set out his political credo with references to his father's service in the Royal Navy in the war and his grandfather's arrival in Britain as a refugee.

He won a 52-second standing ovation but in a clear signal that the party rank and file were in no mood for disloyalty, the strongest applause in the entire speech came when Mr Miliband praised Mr Brown's efforts to boost aid for Africa.

Making clear that he felt a historic fourth term for Labour was still possible, Mr Miliband said it was time to restore the party's sense of self-belief and conviction. "Each day in government in a privilege for us, another opportunity to change the country. So let us earn the privilege, seize the opportunity and prove the fatalists wrong," he said.

"You know the truth is the Tories are beatable. Let's say it with conviction: they are beatable. So just as I hate defeatism about our country, I hate defeatism about our party," he said.

He attacked the Tories' "isolationism" and anti-European instincts, claiming that the party still had not changed enough to take office.

Mr Miliband came under fire from some Cabinet ministers for issuing contradictory and unclear signals about his leadership ambitions. One Cabinet ally said Mr Miliband was trying to be "half in-half out" of the Cabinet.

Some Blairites fear his mixed messages suggest he will back away from any moves to challenge Mr Brown until at least after next June's Euro elections. "You can't go halfway in [to a leadership contest] and then pull out again," one Cabinet minister said.

Mr Miliband appeared to play both the loyalty card and be a rebel. He used one speech to accuse the media of exaggerating claims that he is preparing a leadership bid, and to urge Labour to "pull together behind Gordon's leadership".

But he also gave two interviews highlighting his family life, seen as honing his image in readiness for a contest.

As for the banana - shortly after Mr Miliband's speech, Chief Whip Geoff Hoon had to employ some fancy footwork to avoid slipping on a banana skin dropped in the main aisle of the conference hall.

Someone else had crushed it by stepping on it, but it was not known if the offending banana had belonged to the Foreign Secretary.