Ed Miliband to set out his stall for the Labour leadership today

The Press Association has the story;

Former energy secretary Ed Miliband will set out his vision for the future of Labour in a speech which will effectively launch his campaign for the party's leadership. Mr Miliband is not expected to formally announce his intention to challenge elder brother David for the leadership until next week, but he told his constituency party in Doncaster North on Friday night that he would stand.

In his speech to the Fabian Society in London, he will admit that Labour lost the election because "we lost touch with the lives of the people we represent. We lost touch with the progressive ideals that characterised the earlier years of the government". Labour needs to "rediscover our sense of mission" to help millions of people struggling to make ends meet on modest incomes, he will say.

The party had lost its "radical edge" in power, particularly in dealing with the banks, he will say. "Our response on the excesses of the banks - and the role of the nationalised banks - has not been all it could be. "We should have done more to take the opportunity to rethink the banking system and to show our determination to tackle what had gone wrong," he says.

Mr Miliband will say that he joined Labour at the age of 17 "because of a sense of anger at the injustices of our world, and a sense that my parents instilled that we had a duty to do something about them. Above all, a belief that the Labour Party is the best vehicle, the best hope for progressive change in this country". And he will say: "This is as true today as it was when I joined. Let us use the opportunity of this leadership campaign to begin the road back to power."

A source close to Mr Miliband confirmed that he told local activists that he would stand against his brother for the leadership. He had been planning to announce his candidacy next week, but it leaked out via a message on Twitter sent by a constituency Labour Party member.