Jim Murphy: 'Labour has to come clean on need for cuts'

Jim Murphy, the former Scottish secretary who has run the elder Miliband's campaign, acknowledged that today's decision, due at 4pm, was on a knife-edge, with bookmakers now placing younger brother Ed as the odds-on favourite.

But Mr Murphy said that whoever wins today, the party needed to stop "talking to itself" and also to stop "shouting at the public". Instead, he said Labour needed to accept that voters had decided it had taken a wrong turn.

He also said the party needed to articulate a more subtle message on the coming cuts, acknowledging that some spending reductions were necessary, while opposing the coalition government on "the speed and depth" of its plans.

Mr Murphy also flatly denied some reports yesterday that talks had begun between the two Miliband camps about a possible role for David, should he be defeated today by his younger brother.

David Miliband's team remains confident that the former foreign secretary is still on course for victory, having build up a lead among elected members and party supporters. However, Ed Miliband could still win if he gains a big enough lead over his elder brother among union members.

Today's vote is decided by an electoral college with the three wings of the party - elected members, party supporters, and union members - making up a third each. The election will be decided using a preferential system, where voters rank each candidate.

With the ballot conducted by the Electoral Reform Society, not even senior party figures will know the result until this afternoon, with many yesterday declaring it too close to call. However, either David or Ed Miliband is certain to win, having gained far more support during the campaign than their rivals Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott.

Yesterday, Mr Balls made a clear bid for the shadow chancellor's job, arguing that both Milibands agreed with his economic analysis on the need to hold back on spending cuts. However, he faces a battle for the key post with whichever brother loses today.

Mr Murphy, who has run David Miliband's campaign, said that whoever won today, the conference needed to move on from the summer of internal debate.

"The conference will be the first real chance since the election to talk to the public. The party has been talking to the party since polls closed, apart from four days when we talked to the Lib Dems, but it has been talking to itself. This is the first chance to get away from that internal conversation and we have got to make it count."

Mr Murphy provided an insight into the strategy which the elder Miliband will employ if elected on the central issue of the public sector cuts, which will be fully unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne next month.

Mr Balls is now arguing that Labour should make the case for resisting the cuts, on the grounds that the economic backdrop has changed.

However, Mr Murphy said: "I think it is a pretty clear argument that you have got to make some savings. We are not in government so we don't have to come up with a spending plan next week but we do have to have something that has some credibility."

He added: "We didn't lose our economic credibility in government, and we shouldn't lose it when we are in opposition. It is about being straightforward about the need to make some savings and cuts, but in a different way and at a different speed to the current government."

"There is a strong political and economic case for opposing the current government on the speed and depth of cuts. But you've got to at least have an alternative offer, that is pretty clear. It doesn't have to be every last job or down to the last penny, but there has to be an offer."

Mr Murphy also said the party needed to move on from criticising its period in office. In comments which could be seen as a criticism of the Ed Miliband campaign, which has attacked some of the record of the previous Labour government, he said: "If David wins he will be sharply focused on the future and our future plans. It's not going to be about trashing Blair and Brown. The Blair Brown days are gone. They are past."

He added that the party had been seen to be "shouting at the public that we were right and they were wrong". He added: "That has been the tone in parts after the election campaign." He said the conference should "acknowledge that the public thought we were wrong" and the focus on offering new policies.

The way in which the coming few days will be orchestrated was yet to be nailed down, Mr Murphy said, amid confusion over whether the candidates today will be required to stand in public and, in an X-Factor-style line-up, face being voted off one by one.

As for the conference itself, the new leader will speak on Tuesday afternoon. The second placed candidate will also be given a slot to speak to the conference. It promises to revive memories of the past great rivalry in the party, when, as chancellor, Gordon Brown spoke ahead of Tony Blair's main address, the pair pitting themselves against one another.

However, Mr Murphy played down any suggestion of the two brothers rekindling Labour's old rivalries. He said: "We'll do them simultaneously."

Meanwhile, Mr Balls has been setting out what he believes should be Labour's economic strategy after the leadership elections.

He said: "Unless we've won the argument very early on the economy it is very hard for us. You shouldn't reduce the deficit until the recovery's secure. During the leadership election, of course we've had different positions … but if we allow the inevitable differences of position to become ongoing divides, we've failed to learn the lessons of history. If I was Labour leader, I'd take Andy [Burnham's] ideas on social care, David's on the mansion tax, Ed's on the living wage. And I hope that some of the ideas I've brought forward will also be part of that discussion."

That will be seen as a subtle application for a key post, his likely preference being shadow chancellor. Mr Balls is reportedly not keen on the role of shadow home secretary, a post many think he is well suited to. He is determined that the shadow cabinet should comprise the best talents Labour has to offer.

"To be fair to Tony, in the early period, he was good at making sure the best people were in the right jobs," he said. "That's the correct way."