THE fall-out to Labour's General Election defeat has intensified with senior party figures trading blows amid an increasingly bitter row over the future direction of the party.
Lord Prescott urged David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary who lost out to his brother Ed in the Labour leadership battle in 2010, to "shut up" after the now international charity chief accused his sibling of having "turned the page backwards" in terms of the party's approach.
The Labour peer also urged Alastair Campbell to "stay at home" after the former Downing Street spin doctor claimed Ed Miliband had failed to create a credible campaign and warned that he would try to unseat any successor who did not look as if he or she could win by 2018.
Mr Campbell later hit back at Lord Prescott, accusing him of lapsing into his "comfort zone".
In Scotland, Andy Burnham, the frontrunner to succeed Mr Miliband as leader, also hit out at the former No 10 communications chief, saying : "We can't have Labour in a state of perpetual flux. Let's have a debate about the party's future and go forward in a new direction but let's not invent mechanisms to reopen the debate or undermine the leader."
The Shadow Health Secretary, on a visit to Holyrood to meet Labour MSPs, pledged to fix Scottish Labour's "dysfunctional" relationship with the UK party.
"We've got to get the relationship right between Scottish Labour and the UK party; it has not been right since devolution," he said, stressing: "I'm going to put it right based on what people here are saying."
He explained one MSP told him the relationship had been "dysfunctional" and noted: "That's a description I would not disagree with."
Mr Burnham made clear that separating Scottish and UK Labour into two distinct parties was an option that should be discussed - ex-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is the latest Labour figure to suggest such a change - but he added: "Instinctively, it's not an option I favour".
He said "as a minimum" the Scottish party should be able to make its own policy in areas covered by the new Scotland Bill.
While, theoretically, that would allow a Scottish Labour leader to advocate different tax policies from the UK party, the frontbencher used the example of welfare to illustrate where Scottish Labour could set its own agenda.
The MP for Leigh near Manchester said he would not intervene in the Scottish Labour leadership election but praised frontrunner Kezia Dugdale as one of the party's "brightest talents".
Meantime nominations, which close on Monday, continue to come in with Mr Burnham thus far securing 62 backers, Yvette Cooper 51 and Liz Kendall 37. To stand, a candidate needs 35.
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