Miliband keeps little brother guessing on frontbench move

David Miliband kept his younger brother waiting as he agonised over whether to quit frontline politics following his dramatic and painful defeat in the British Labour leadership election.

Although Labour put on a public show of unity at its Manchester conference, tension erupted after Ed Miliband declared the New Labour era was over and raised the prospect of higher taxes and cutting the public deficit over a longer timescale than the party currently supports.

But Alistair Darling, the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, was to warn the conference today that Labour should not abandon his plan to halve the deficit in four years. He said: "Labour fought long and hard to establish ourselves as a party that is responsible on tax and spending. We have to keep that in mind. If you spend money, you have to justify every single penny of it. If you are taxing people, you have to justify every single tax rate. Nobody likes paying tax - even people who consume public services. You have to be very careful here."

Blairites were dismayed by David Miliband's narrow defeat and expressed fears that Labour would lose the next general election. One told the Independent: "Ed thinks he can win by not being New Labour because it is 'the past' while throwing in the occasional reference to aspiration to show he is on the side of ordinary working people. It's hopeless."

A Blairite former Cabinet minister added: "It is a miracle result for the Tories. Ed is fatally damaged. We have a second-best leader who wasn't even elected by a majority of his own party members or MPs."

David Miliband has until Thursday morning to decide whether to stand in the election among Labour MPs to choose the shadow Cabinet, after which his brother will allocate frontbench posts. Today, he faced a gruelling appearance in front of delegates, whom he was to address on foreign affairs.

Aides said he wanted to 'chill out' and consider his future. He moved out of the main conference hotel in Manchester to try to avoid the spotlight.

David Miliband received conflicting advice yesterday. If he walks away now, critics may accuse him of flouncing out after losing. But if he intends to bow out of British politics in the medium term, it might be better for him to go sooner rather than later.

Darling urged the former Foreign Secretary to stay. "My guess is that he will stay and fight his corner. The party will be much better with him on the front bench than without him. He is passionately committed to the Labour Party and will want to play his full part." But another former minister said: "He is finished. If he's got any sense, he might as well get out now."

Some Blairites claimed David Miliband had shown he lacked the killer instinct by refusing to fight back hard against his brother. They suggested David could have won by saying more strongly he was the man to win the next general election. "He allowed Ed to faze him. For ordinary, unpolitical party and union members, there seemed to be no price to pay in voting for Ed," one said.

Yesterday Ed Miliband said of his elder brother: "He needs time to think about the contribution he can make. I think he can make a very big contribution to British politics."

He insisted there would be no lurch to the left under his leadership and denied he would be a prisoner of the unions, who secured his victory: "I am nobody's man; I am my own man."

However, he described Darling's deficit reduction plan as a "starting point" and said Labour would look to see how it could "improve" it.

He declared that the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's proposal to eliminate the structural deficit by 2015 was "economically dangerous".

The scramble for a place in Ed Miliband's shadow Cabinet officially began yesterday, bringing with it the prospect of another tense family contest at the top of the Labour Party.

Both Ed Balls, who came third in the party's leadership contest, and his wife, Yvette Cooper, are all but certain to win a place in it, with both seen as prime candidates to take the post of shadow Chancellor.

Labour's 257 MPs have been deluged by emails and letters from more than 40 of their colleagues hoping to be elected to one of 19 shadow Cabinet posts.

- INDEPENDENT