LIZ Kendall has become the first Labour MP to declare that she will seek the party leadership as she joined a chorus of criticism of the tactics that ended in a crushing General Election defeat.
The shadow health minister, pictured, conceded it would be "phenomenally difficult" to sufficiently rebuild the party around a more attractive pitch to voters in time to defeat the Conservatives in 2020.
Potential rival Chuka Umunna earlier said he would "play the fullest part I can" but declined to confirm that he would join the race to succeed Ed Miliband, who resigned after leading the party to a shocking defeat at the polls.
Both joined calls by senior Blairites - including ex-PM Tony Blair himself - for the party to offer a more "aspirational" message that appealed beyond the traditional working class vote.
It was no good being a government that thought the answer was "doing things to people or for them", she said, and instead needed to ensure everyone had the opportunity to succeed for themselves.
"It is not just enough to critique what is going on; you have to set out something people can believe in", she told BBC1's Sunday Politics, suggesting doubts over Mr Miliband's leadership were supressed because Labour believed in "total loyalty".
Mr Umunna said it was "too early" to declare his hand, with the party's ruling body due to meet today to decide the timetable for the contest.
But asked if she was standing, Ms Kendall told the programme: "Yes".
Mr Umunna said Mr Miliband led a "courageous" campaign and accepted part-responsibility for failing to prevent a strategy focused on Labour's "core vote" but rejected claims the scale of the defeat meant it could not return to power in 2020.