ED Miliband has again been warned by New Labour grandees that he must not allow the party to become simply a party of protest but offer alternative policies to the Conservative-led Coalition.

Just days before the Labour leader is due in Inverness for the Scottish Labour Party conference, two former home secretaries suggested it was now time for Mr Miliband to be coming up with concrete policies to challenge David Cameron and the Tories.

Their comments echoed Tony Blair who, in his most significant foray into domestic politics since leaving Downing Street six years ago, warned Labour it should not "settle back into its old territory of defending the status quo" and retreat to its "comfort zone" of oppositionism.

Lord Reid of Cardowan, who held six posts in Cabinet, said that while Mr Miliband had succeeded in avoiding party splits, he still had a lot more to do.

"You have to move from being a voice of protest to offering solutions as you move from being an effective opposition to a potential government," he told the BBC.

"What he now has to do is to set out the direction of a future Labour government on questions like welfare, on the economy, on housing and so on. There are some signs that that is beginning to happen."

The Labour peer said the first task had been accomplished: Labour had avoided fratricide and was an effective opposition.

"The next two years will tell whether the second important stage has been fulfilled, and that is becoming a potential government with answers and solutions, not just a critique of the status quo and the present Government," said Lord Reid.

He also questioned Mr Miliband's assertion the political centre ground was moving to the left, saying he did not know what the evidence was for that.

Earlier, his colleague David Blunkett had said Mr Miliband's vision of a "One Nation" Labour Party had to be built on more than addressing obvious injustices.