Ed Miliband: Labour should not be a party of the 48%

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, right, said that Labour needed to reach out to Leave voters and not "be a party of the 48%"

Former Labour leader and Remain campaigner Ed Miliband has said the Labour Party needs to reach out to people who voted for Brexit.

He told a fringe event at the party conference in Liverpool that Leave voters "feel their voice has not been heard in politics".

Mr Miliband said Labour needs to reach out on the issues of housing, public services and jobs.

He added MPs should "get behind" Jeremy Corbyn after the leadership election.

'400 seats voted Leave'

During the talk, on a panel which included MP Chuka Umunna, he said: "I see talk that we should become the party of the 48% - that is nonsense.

"I don't just think it's nonsense electorally, but it is incidentally because more than 400 seats in the country voted for Leave, but it's nonsense in principle because it buys into the same problem people were objecting to in their vote."

The Doncaster North MP campaigned to Remain in the EU, along with Jeremy Corbyn

The former energy and climate change secretary said the EU Referendum vote reflected a "divided country" that needed to be united.

Mr Miliband added that voters in his Doncaster North constituency backed Leave by 69%.

He said: "Let's be really careful when we talk about this that somehow we should just be the party of Remain."

Speaking in favour of an earlier speech made by Mr Corbyn, the MP said that a hard Brexit - where Britain would retreat from the EU single market and customs union - would be a "disaster".

He likened Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox to the "three horsemen of the apocalypse".

Leave campaigners Liam Fox, left, Boris Johnson and David Davis hold the key cabinet positions that will shape Britain's exit from the EU

Mr Miliband, who said that Jeremy Corbyn's position as leader of the Labour Party was "untenable" in June, reiterated comments he made on Saturday that the party should unite behind the twice-elected leader.

When asked if he would consider a position in the shadow cabinet, Mr Miliband said: "I decided a year ago to be a backbencher, that was the best thing for me, that's what I anticipate continuing but in the end these are matters for Jeremy and for discussion, but that's what I would anticipate."