Labour 'must stop in-fighting'

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He said politicians on the left were "preoccupied" by what divided them rather than recognising the shared values they had in common.

Mr Purnell resigned from the Cabinet last month, issuing a high-profile call for Gordon Brown to stand down.

He has now launched a three-year project examining the future of left-wing politics for the thinktank Demos.

Mr Purnell, who is regarded as a Blairite, was one of the most senior ministers to walk out of Gordon Brown's Government as Labour suffered a trouncing in European and local elections in June, and the only one to call directly for the Prime Minister to go.

Launching the Open Left project, Mr Purnell said: "Everyone has a different idea about what it means to be on the left today. After more than a decade in government, instead of recognising what we have in common, the left has become preoccupied by the few areas that divide us.

"I think now is the time to return to the big questions for the left. What kind of equality do we care about? How do we reform the state to give people more power? How do we promote personal freedom whilst also building a better society?"

The project will begin with an online forum at www.openleft.co.uk in which ten leading figures - including Mr Purnell - explain why they are on the left of British politics.

In a Guardian interview, Mr Purnell said he wanted to "try and be as radical on the left as on the right".

Despite his reputation as a Blairite, Mr Purnell told the newspaper: "All those Blairite, New Labour labels... for me it's a bit like Britpop - I feel nostalgic for it, it was absolutely right for its time, but that time was 1994."