This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, yesterday tried to set the record straight over his elevation to the House of Lords, saying he never opposed the unelected second chamber and he had not been pressed into taking the peerage by his wife.

Prescott told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he accepted the offer of a seat in the Lords so he could retain some influence in the political system and continue his environmental campaigning.

His opposition to what he previously called "flunkery and titles" had been only to hereditary peers, he said. "We got rid of hundreds of hereditary peers," he said.

He denied reports that he had been pushed into accepting the peerage by his wife, Pauline, saying: "I make my own decisions."

Last week Prescott confirmed he would run for the position of Labour treasurer.

TomorrowLabour's six leadership hopefuls lay out their case to lead the party in a series of articles for the Guardian.

Claiming he is an "optimist" about the party's future, Ed Miliband nevertheless expresses regrets about Labour's last term. "We were too slow to recognise the squeezed living standards people faced in our economy, and the centrality of housing. This explains some of the heightened concern people expressed about immigration ... We sometimes seemed too casual about civil liberties.

He says Labour "must build a wider movement that can show in opposition that we are rooted in people's lives. We must show that we are a party of idealists, not just managers."

David Miliband, the bookies' favourite, makes what appears to be a pointed attack on both his chief rivals' analysis of why Labour lost the election, attacking a view that blamed boredom with the ruling party, the recession and voter anger about immigration as "a comfortable analysis, but wrong".

says Labour lost "badly" at the election "because we did not occupy the ground of progressive reform."

Ed Balls says the party needs to re-engage with people's concerns over public services and Iraq. Diane Abbott says Labour did itself "irreparable damage over civil liberties and human rights". John McDonnell warns against the leadership debate being confined to the "narrow margins" of New Labour. Andy Burnham says antisocial behaviour and immigration are issues that Labour must tackle.