Ed Miliband hits back at brother David

Ed Miliband has fired out a press release warning leadership contenders (meaning Brother David) that they should take “special care to continue our debate in the spirit we started out. I will continue to conduct this campaign in that spirit.”

Ed Miliband has taken umbrage at what he sees as a personal attack from his brother on his ability to lead. It’s not just the terms of David Miliband’s speech tonight and article in The Times this morning but the briefing which the Ed camp thinks went with it.

David Miliband’s speech this evening warns that people (for which read “Ed”) should not operate in Labour’s comfort zone, should stop under-estimating the scale of the 2010 election defeat and should not think that winning over disgruntled Lib Dem voters will do the bulk of the work of getting Labour back into power.

Ed Miliband’s supporters say this looks a bit desperate, shows they’ve got the other camp worried and are pointing to the endorsement, just announced, of the New Statesman. The magazine says Ed is the candidate of “change,” exactly the mantle that David is trying to win back.