Milburn attacks Labour’s ‘ghastly experiment’ under Miliband

Former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn has called for a leader from the new generation of MPs to break with the party’s past, while criticising Ed Miliband’s “ghastly experiment” of the past five years.

He told BBC’s Newsnight: “Frankly, we’ve been through a pretty ghastly experiment over these last five years where our offer has been that the public have moved massively to the left following the global financial crisis, when actually, when you look at issues like immigration or Europe, arguably they have moved the other way.

“We need a new generation untainted by the past to solve those problems.”

Meanwhile, Labour’s leadership candidates have begun to set out their visions of how they see the party recovering from a disastrous general election to win in 2020.

Yvette Cooper (pipctured right) and Andy Burnham (pictured middle) yesterday joined Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna in the race to replace Ed Miliband, with the leader to be announced on 12 September before the Labour party’s annual conference.

I’m putting my name forward to stand for leader of the Labour Party. Here’s why: http://t.co/2ZNbZEYyLJ @UKLabour

— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) May 13, 2015

The leadership battle could heat up with Tristram Hunt the only other widely touted rival yet to announce his candidacy.