Ed Miliband wants to overhaul Labour's policies as he vows to learn the lessons of the party's general election defeat in May.

Addressing the party's National Policy Forum in Gillingham, Mr Miliband has sought to distance himself from the legacy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, saying that in its final years New Labour had "lost its way".

He has announced the formation of a series of working groups, chaired by shadow cabinet ministers, intended to lay the ground for a new policy programme to take Labour into the next general election.

He also issued an appeal to universities, think-tanks, charities and other independent institutions to come forward with ideas that the party can incorporate into its reform agenda.

The process is intended to provide the building blocks for Labour's general election platform - feeding into a report to next year's annual party conference, with a second follow-up report to the 2012 conference.