Miliband reaffirms brother support

David Miliband has said he is "completely committed to doing everything I can to support" brother Ed Miliband as leader of the Labour Party.

The former Foreign Secretary stressed his ambition was to contribute to bringing Labour back to power, adding he had to have the "humility to recognise" that a "daily soap opera" would not benefit the party.

Mr Miliband said he did not regret running for the leadership after losing out to his younger sibling in the party's election contest in 2010.

Asked on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show when he was coming back to frontline politics, he said: "My ambition is to contribute to the return of the Labour government and I think that I have to have the humility to recognise that while a daily soap opera might be fun for the media, it wouldn't be good for the Labour Party.

"I don't regret running for the leadership, but I honour the fact that my brother won and I am completely committed to doing everything I can to support him in that leadership and I think I can best support him by working at the grass roots.

"The shadow cabinet has its place but it's a bigger team than that."

Mr Miliband said he was spending time working for the grassroots of the Labour Party and wanted to make sure it became a "sustainable organisation at the grassroots".

He joked that some people might think it "ironic" that he had set up a leadership academy for community leadership to help people make changes in their own community, arguing that Britain had "underpowered communities".

Asked if he would carry on as a Labour MP after the next election, he said: "Yes, I'm representing my constituents in South Shields."