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| Labour cannot be timid - minister | Labour cannot be timid - minister |
| (11 minutes later) | |
| The Labour Party must avoid being too "timid" if it is to win the next election, a health minister has said. | The Labour Party must avoid being too "timid" if it is to win the next election, a health minister has said. |
| Ivan Lewis called on Gordon Brown to be a "decisive" leader, saying that "the only way forward now is bold Labour". | Ivan Lewis called on Gordon Brown to be a "decisive" leader, saying that "the only way forward now is bold Labour". |
| Voters needed reassurance that Labour was "on their side", the MP for Bury South told The Independent. | Voters needed reassurance that Labour was "on their side", the MP for Bury South told The Independent. |
| His remarks follow Labour's by-election defeat in Glasgow East and an article by David Miliband about the party's future which did not mention Mr Brown. | His remarks follow Labour's by-election defeat in Glasgow East and an article by David Miliband about the party's future which did not mention Mr Brown. |
| The foreign secretary insisted this did not mean he was "campaigning" to replace Mr Brown as leader, however. | The foreign secretary insisted this did not mean he was "campaigning" to replace Mr Brown as leader, however. |
| Mr Miliband said he was "absolutely confident" that Mr Brown could lead Labour to an election victory. | |
| And he insisted his article was intended as a challenge to Conservative leader David Cameron rather than to the prime minister. | |
| 'Damaging' attacks | |
| Many of Thursday's newspapers claim Mr Brown's allies are angry at Mr Miliband for perceived disloyalty, although these reports are attributed to unidentified sources within Labour. | |
| David Miliband has insisted he was not "campaigning" against Mr BrownFormer minister Denis MacShane called for an end to such anonymous briefings against the foreign secretary, saying these risked harming Britain's standing in the world. | |
| "The national interest is now being damaged by these anonymous attacks on Miliband and they should stop now," he said. | |
| 'Ultimate test' | |
| In an interview with the Independent, Mr Lewis said the measure of any political party was revealed "in the bad time and not the good time". | |
| "We now face the ultimate test. People have a decision to make. But there's one thing that's absolutely clear - it's that the public don't vote for divided parties." | "We now face the ultimate test. People have a decision to make. But there's one thing that's absolutely clear - it's that the public don't vote for divided parties." |
| He said he expected Labour to win the next election, which must take place by May 2010, adding his party had "got to believe" this was possible. | He said he expected Labour to win the next election, which must take place by May 2010, adding his party had "got to believe" this was possible. |
| "If we don't believe that we can still win, how do we expect the electorate to believe that?" | "If we don't believe that we can still win, how do we expect the electorate to believe that?" |
| And Mr Lewis added that his party's defeat in Glasgow East last week "confirmed my view that timidity and incremental change will not deal with the way people feel right now". | |
| The Scottish National Party overturned a majority of 13,507 to win a seat previously considered to be one of Labour's safest with a swing of nearly 23%. | |
| On Tuesday, Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, insisted she was "not preparing the ground for a leadership election" and said she did not accept Mr Brown's spell as leader was "over". |