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Miliband denies "Heseltine moment" claims

23/09/2008

David Miliband has attempted to pour water on reports he toned down his speech to the Labour conference yesterday to downplay speculation over his leadership ambitions.

The foreign secretary was overheard by a BBC journalist in Manchester as saying he "couldn't have gone any further" in his speech to delegates yesterday.

"It would have been a Heseltine moment," Mr Miliband reportedly said to an aide after being told his speech had been rated as 'six out of ten'.

In his speech Mr Miliband praised Gordon Brown for his work against cluster bombs and for international development, but he failed to back the prime minister as the right man to take Britain forward.

Michael Heseltine, the former Conservative grandee, was widely expected to succeed Margaret Thatcher in the run-up to the Iron Lady's fall from power. She was succeeded by John Major.

But when confronted about the overheard comment on Tuesday morning Mr Miliband denied the "allegations" and, grinning, dismissed them as "ridiculous".

Earlier in the week Mr Miliband had pressed home his opposition to a leadership election, as called for by several of Mr Brown's most vocal opponents.

Cameras will be trained on the foreign secretary's face as he watches Mr Brown give one of the most important speeches of his career this afternoon.