Labour leadership contender David Miliband won the backing of the influential centre-left MP Jon Cruddas.
In an interview with the New Statesman magazine released last night, Mr Cruddas - who ran for the deputy leadership in 2007 and was tipped to mount his own leadership bid - said he was impressed with Mr Miliband's leadership style.
"David is not just going down a checklist of policies; he seems to me to be echoing a more fundamental sentiment, in terms of what Labour needs to do," he said.
"I disagree with him on a lot of policy but I think, in terms of the nature of the leadership that's needed, he's beginning to touch on some of those more profound questions that need to be addressed head-on."
He also echoed Mr Miliband's view that Labour needed to do more than simply attack the coalition, saying it was a "mistake" to concentrate their fire on the Liberal Democrats.
"There's a danger of us spraying too much lead across the forecourt and not really thinking about how we need to regroup," he said.
"We need to have respect for and show courtesy towards different traditions as part of an overall, plural realignment across the centre and the left."
