Brown 'must set out his vision'

Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor who quit the Cabinet alongside Tony Blair in June, used an article for The Sunday Times to argue: "Making clear our vision is the challenge for the Labour Party now. Because if we rely on experience and our ability to handle crises and do not set out, in the coming months, our vision for the future of the UK, a vision which represents the progressive view of politics, then we will be offering drift not leadership, and the past not the future."

He added pointedly: "Renewal does not come from change of leadership alone."

Business Secretary John Hutton rejected suggestions that the Prime Minister lacked vision, saying: "We have a very clear vision."

"The key challenge for us - and Gordon has rightly identified this - it's a vision thing," he told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show. "What we have got to do now is set out our vision for the next 10 years."

An ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph suggested that Tory leader David Cameron was now in a position to secure a Commons majority in a general election. The poll put the Conservatives on 43% and Labour on 36%. It was the highest rating for the Tories since the last Conservative government's Black Wednesday debacle in 1992.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said: "We are all on the edge of our seats waiting to see the (Prime Minister's) vision and actually it is David Cameron who has set out the vision in that brilliant speech at the end of our conference."

But Europe Minister Jim Murphy insisted that Mr Brown would still beat Mr Cameron in an election. "There are contrasts between Gordon's real substance and David Cameron's relatively lightweight, all spin, very little substance," he said.

Responding to Lord Falconer's intervention, Home Office minister Liam Byrne insisted the Labour Party had never been so united as it was now. He added: "It would be a big mistake for the past - to which we owe so much - to try and undermine the future."

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, a personal friend of Mr Blair, said it was "wicked" to suggest he was critical of the Prime Minister. "More than anything else he wants Gordon Brown to be a successful New Labour prime minister," she said. "He wants a successful Labour government that, because its work is not yet complete in changing this country for the better, is re-elected in due course for a fourth term."