Ed Miliband is to try to distance himself from his Labour leader predecessors by acknowledging voter "anger" at the failings of the party in government - particularly its claim to have ended "boom and bust".
In his crucial first conference speech as leader, Mr Miliband will seek to draw a line under 13 years of Labour government by declaring that a "new generation" is now in charge of the party and will usher in "different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics".
Ending boom and bust was Gordon Brown's proudest claim as chancellor and Mr Miliband's admission that it was wrong will be seen as a repudiation of the record of the man who was his political mentor and a bold claim to stake out a position as a leader in his own right.
The speech threatens to be overshadowed by speculation over the political future of his brother David, who lost out on the Labour leadership on Saturday.
Responding on Monday night to reports suggesting he was on the verge of giving up frontline politics, a spokesman said the shadow foreign secretary would not decide whether to seek a place in his brother's frontbench team until Wednesday when the deadline for nominations for the shadow cabinet elections was reached.
In his address Ed Miliband is not expected to apologise for Labour's record in power - and will say he wants to celebrate its many achievements under Mr Brown and Tony Blair. But he will acknowledge that voters feel angry over its failure to stand up to City demands for deregulation ahead of the 2008 financial crisis. And he will leave no doubt that he believes the imposition of tuition fees on university students cost the party support, in an apparent signal that he will push ahead with a move to a graduate tax.
Striking a tone of humility, he will accept that Labour lost voters' trust because it become stuck in "old ways of thinking" and failed to adapt in response to changes in the world.
And he will seek to introduce himself to voters - many of whom know little about him - with what was being billed as the most open and personal speech of his career, in which he will explain how his values and beliefs were drawn from his parents' wartime experience as refugees from the Nazis.
In a detailed account of where he believes the New Labour governments of Mr Brown and Mr Blair went wrong, Mr Miliband will say: "It was courage that made us such a successful political force. But our journey must also understand where it went wrong. How did a party with such achievements to its name end up losing five million votes between 1997 and 2010?
"The hard truth for everybody in this hall is that a party that started out by taking on old thinking became the prisoner of its own certainties."
Ed Miliband is to try to distance himself from his Labour leader predecessors by acknowledging voter "anger" at the failings of the party in government - particularly its claim to have ended "boom and bust".
In his crucial first conference speech as leader, Mr Miliband will seek to draw a line under 13 years of Labour government by declaring that a "new generation" is now in charge of the party and will usher in "different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics".
Ending boom and bust was Gordon Brown's proudest claim as chancellor and Mr Miliband's admission that it was wrong will be seen as a repudiation of the record of the man who was his political mentor and a bold claim to stake out a position as a leader in his own right.
The speech threatens to be overshadowed by speculation over the political future of his brother David, who lost out on the Labour leadership on Saturday.
Responding on Monday night to reports suggesting he was on the verge of giving up frontline politics, a spokesman said the shadow foreign secretary would not decide whether to seek a place in his brother's frontbench team until Wednesday when the deadline for nominations for the shadow cabinet elections was reached.
In his address Ed Miliband is not expected to apologise for Labour's record in power - and will say he wants to celebrate its many achievements under Mr Brown and Tony Blair. But he will acknowledge that voters feel angry over its failure to stand up to City demands for deregulation ahead of the 2008 financial crisis. And he will leave no doubt that he believes the imposition of tuition fees on university students cost the party support, in an apparent signal that he will push ahead with a move to a graduate tax.
Striking a tone of humility, he will accept that Labour lost voters' trust because it become stuck in "old ways of thinking" and failed to adapt in response to changes in the world.
And he will seek to introduce himself to voters - many of whom know little about him - with what was being billed as the most open and personal speech of his career, in which he will explain how his values and beliefs were drawn from his parents' wartime experience as refugees from the Nazis.
In a detailed account of where he believes the New Labour governments of Mr Brown and Mr Blair went wrong, Mr Miliband will say: "It was courage that made us such a successful political force. But our journey must also understand where it went wrong. How did a party with such achievements to its name end up losing five million votes between 1997 and 2010?
"The hard truth for everybody in this hall is that a party that started out by taking on old thinking became the prisoner of its own certainties."