David Miliband offers scathing post-election critique of UK's Labour under brother Ed

David Miliband, the former British foreign minister and brother of outgoing Labour leader Ed Miliband, has delivered a harsh critique of his brother’s failed election campaign, saying it appeared to push the party backwards from the principles of aspiration and inclusion.

Speaking to the BBC on Monday from New York, where he works as president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee , Miliband said last week’s election result, which handed Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron a stunning victory, was “devastating” for the Labour party and its supporters.

But he cautioned against blaming the electorate for failing to understand the party’s message. “There’s absolutely no point in blaming the electorate. Any suggestion that they didn’t ‘get it’ is wrong. They didn’t want what was being offered.”

Miliband said: “I think that the voters have delivered a very clear verdict. And unless Labour is able to embrace a politics of aspiration and inclusion, a politics that defies some of the traditional labels that have dogged politics for so long, then it’s not going to win.”

He said the choice was “very, very clear” - “either we build on what Labour achieved in 1997 and we have a chance to succeed, or we abandon it and we fail. That’s what’s happened in 2010, in 2015, and it mustn’t happen again.”

Miliband, who quit as an MP when his brother beat him to the Labour leadership in 2010, said he would not be returning to British politics for now, but hinted he might be more involved in discussions about the future of Labour now that he is finally free of the soap opera surrounding him and his brother.