Chris Mullin, former minister, calls for Miliband to make use of Labour veterans like Alistair Darling and Alan Johnson
Ed Miliband still needs a credible message on fixing the economy and should bring back some "grownups" like Alistair Darling, one of Tony Blair's former ministers has said.
Chris Mullin, who was MP for Sunderland South for 23 years, said the Labour leader would have a better chance of countering the Conservatives' "vast lies" if he mobilised some former ministers.
The former minister is the latest senior Labour figure to urge Miliband to be more proactive about demolishing the coalition's arguments. The intervention also comes after a Guardian/ICM poll showed that David Cameron and George Osborne are seen as much more economically competent than the Labour frontbench team of Miliband and Ed Balls.
"There's a few things Labour should be doing in my view. They have to get a coherent line on the economy," Mullin told the BBC's World at One. "Firstly they've got to counter – and my goodness they should have been doing this for a long time – the vast lie which has been allowed to become embedded in the public consciousness that our economic problems were primarily caused by the last government.
"To paraphrase Bill Clinton: it was the bankers, stupid. The only thing Labour needs to apologise for is not regulating the banks sufficiently, and the Tories are not entitled to take advantage of that because throughout they were in favour of less regulation, not more."
He called for Labour veterans like Darling, the former chancellor, and Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, to be more vocal.
"Personally I think some of the grownups – Alistair Darling, who was a very good chancellor and still when one hears him interviewed occasionally is a very credible witness on the economy– they ought to make more use of," he said.
"And someone like Alan Johnson I think is an immensely credible figure and perhaps more use could be made of him."
The Guardian's poll found on Monday that a growing proportion of the public believes that the prime minister and the chancellor are more capable of managing the economy than their Labour rivals.
The number of people prepared to back the Tory team for economic competence soared to 40% from 28% in June. Miliband and shadow chancellor Balls have seen a much smaller rise in credibility, with 24% of the public preferring them compared with 19% two months ago.
While the latest voting intentions have Labour ahead of the Tories by three points on 35%, the crucial economic "competence" figures will be a blow to Miliband.
The Labour leader has had a difficult summer following tacit criticism from colleagues about the party's lack of direction.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, told the Guardian last week that Labour risks defeat unless it puts its cards on the table, and warned that voters aren't yet convinced that Labour has the answers.
Labour MPs George Mudie, Geraint Davies and Graham Stringer have called more directly for more leadership. Davies urged Miliband to to provide a compelling case to the electorate on why the country would be better off under Labour and criticised the party for looking like a "shamefaced schoolboy" on the economy.
Stringer suggested the party was making a huge mistake by "slumbering" during Westminster's summer recess.