David Miliband Denies Feud Over Leadership

David Miliband has been forced to deny claims that he is in a bitter feud with his brother Ed over the Labour leadership.

The former foreign secretary said: "Ed won, I stand fully behind him and so should everyone else.

"I called for unity last October and I repeat that now."

Clearly riled by the claims he continued: "The rest is soap opera of which I want no part and the public have no interest."

The reports of brotherly friction have been fanned by an unauthorised biography that alleges that the leadership battle has had a far worse impact on their relationship than either has admitted publicly.

The ex-foreign secretary is said to have effectively accused Ed of lying about his conduct in the contest last year.

Both siblings dismissed the revelations as "tittle tattle".

However, they could fuel doubts about Mr Miliband's future at the helm of the party amid criticism of his performance against David Cameron .

Yesterday's leak of a text of the victory address David Miliband planned to deliver - admitting Labour's economic stewardship had been flawed - has done nothing to dampen speculation over divisions.

There were reports last night that friends of Mr Miliband had said he was "waiting for his brother to fail" and still coveted the leadership.

Ed Miliband will try to get back on track tomorrow with a keynote speech acknowledging that some voters see the party as having encouraged a "take-what-you-can approach" among benefit scroungers and millionaire bankers.

According to the book, written by two Labour-supporting journalists and serialised in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Miliband says he went to David's home and told him face to face that he intended to seek the leadership.

But the elder brother apparently denies that such a meeting ever took place. It also questions the idea that Ed made a last-minute decision to stand.

Instead the former energy secretary is said to have been plotting to eclipse David for years.

The authors, Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre, refer to reports that Ed tricked his sibling into not challenging Gordon Brown before the 2010 general election to boost his own chances of succeeding.

This is claimed to have sparked a separate rift between Ed and David's respective wives, Justine Thornton and Louise Shackelton.

The book says Louise has been "nasty" to Justine and has "cut Ed dead".

The book, Ed: The Milibands And The Making Of A Labour Leader, asserts that the younger brother blames David's team for spreading his nicknames Red Ed and Forrest Gump.

It paints a less-than-flattering portrait of the young Ed, saying he was a "nasal, dull" youth and a "very unusual student" who had no girlfriends in his four years at Oxford and Harvard universities.

The brothers' Left-wing mother, Marion, who "could not stand Tony Blair", is said to have backed Brownite Ed for the leadership. She apparently believes the family will never be the same as a result of the row.

David can reportedly barely bring himself to speak to his brother now, and the two men communicate mainly through officials.

He is allegedly scathing about Ed's performance in private, saying he is "heading in the wrong direction".

For his part, Ed is said to regard his sibling as too "managerial and technocratic".

Speaking to Sky's Dermot Murnaghan, Foreign Secretary William Hague had this advice for the Labour leader: "You have to acknowledge where you went wrong in the past.

"In this case, it's about the Labour Party taking responsibility for the huge deficit and debts they saddled this country with and which we're having to deal with now.

"You also have to have a clear idea of where you are going in the future.

"The problem for Ed Miliband is that he has not set out where the Labour Party is going, nor has he shown any real recognition of where it has been been.

"Without those two things, he is stuck."