BRITAIN rejected New Labour at the ballot box in May. Now it seems the Labour Party has done the same.

The shock victory of Ed Miliband over his brother David in the race to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader will almost certainly condemn New Labour to political history.

Whether Miliband Junior can lead Labour back to power at the next election remains to be seen.

He won the leadership election by the narrowest of margins thanks to the support of the trade unions. Mr Miliband will undoubtedly steer Labour policy to the Left as a result.

Some Labour activists will be happy to see some clear red water between them and the coalition Government.

Others will feel that, having lost Middle England in May, they will never win it back with policies that take the party away from the middle ground.

The Government will, we suspect, be happier with Ed Miliband in charge of the opposition than it would have been had David won the Labour crown.

And critics of the alternative vote system will feel the result has played into their hands ahead of next year’s referendum.

In the Labour leadership election, the system meant David Miliband won three of the four rounds of voting but still lost.

David is clearly far from finished as a senior Labour figure but his chances of leading the party may have gone forever.

The question for Labour activists now is in Ed Miliband have they just elected a leader who will make their party unelectable?