Miliband goes back to party roots to unite Labour

Three days after joining Tony Blair for "champagne, canapés and celebrities" at a very New Labour fund-raising dinner, Ed Miliband will return to the party's Old Labour roots today by attending the Durham Miners' Gala.

The once high-profile event has slipped off the Labour leadership's radar as it distanced itself from the party's trade union founders. But Mr Miliband will signal his determination to reunite the Labour family by being the first leader to speak at the gala for 25 years.

Although the Conservatives have already leapt on his appearance as evidence that he is "Red Ed," Mr Miliband professes that he is not scared about the Labour "old ghosts" which haunted his predecessors.

His message today will be that the gala is a "great Labour tradition" whose spirit contrasts with the values of the Coalition Government.

Mr Miliband will describe the Coalition's "cruellest" act as leaving a "lost generation" of young people jobless, reviving memories of the Thatcher Government.