LABOUR Party leadership hopefuls were in Oxford tonight vowing to reconnect with party supporters.

However, all of them admitted the party had to face up to the mistakes of its past.

The candidates said the leadership battle, which culminates in the autumn, was about taking the party forward and exposing and opposing the new Government.

All five leadership contenders – David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Diane Abbott, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls – set out their credentials in front of more than 500 party members and supporters in a packed Town Hall in St Aldate’s.

David Miliband said Andrew Smith’s victory in Oxford East was a model for national success.

The former Foreign Secretary added: “The job of the next party leader is to turn the poetry of values into the prose of real change.

“We need to be an opposition to cuts in funding that will hit Oxford hard and housing policy that will hit Oxford hard.”

Ed Balls also admitted the party had “lost touch” after 13 years of running the country under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

He said his father, from a working class family in Norwich, was the first in his family to go to university because of the opportunities provided by a post-war Labour Government.

He added: “That’s what I want for every child and every family in this country and that’s what I believe in.”

Diane Abbott, the only female candidate, said her experience was her key asset.

She said she had been a city councillor, elected to the National Executive, and an adviser to the Mayor of London.

She added: “There are those who say I don’t look like a Labour leader.

“I don’t have the suits, I don’t have the ties, but in an internationalised world, this might just be what the Labour leader looks like.”

Mr Burnham said he had been loyal to Blair and Brown, but that factionalism had sapped party morale.

He added: “It’s about renewing Labour and reconnecting with the public.”

Ed Miliband said his parents, who were refugees from the Nazis, had shaped his political beliefs.

He said: “I was brought up with a simple truth – when you see injustice it’s not good enough to just get angry, you have a duty to do something about it.”

The hustings debate was organised by Labour city councillor Van Coulter and chaired by Oxford Brookes University’s vice-chancellor Janet Beer.

Mr Coulter said it was important that grass-roots members had a chance to question the candidates.

He said: “We need to get our leader of the party rather than have someone assume power, as has happened in the past.”

The Labour Party is set to choose a new leader before its annual conference in Manchester, starting on September 26.