Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prescott tells David Miliband: "Get on with your international job. Don't come over here telling us what we do."

David Miliband should "shut up" and stop telling the party what to do, ex-Labour deputy leader John Prescott has said

Lord Prescott said the "Miliband period" was over and David should get on with his international job rather than commenting on the Labour Party.

It comes after David, who was beaten to the Labour leadership by his brother Ed, criticised its election campaign.

The former MP said the party was backwards-looking and out of touch.

However, Lord Prescott said his recent interventions were "terrible" and the former foreign secretary should keep his opinions to himself.

'Moving backwards'

"He should shut up," he told BBC 2's Daily Politics programme.

"Look, we've gone through that period, the Miliband period is now gone. We're not looking to a period where he emerges with another Miliband interpretation

"I don't think that's possible... Get on with your international job. Don't come over here telling us what we do."

David Miliband was widely tipped to become the leader of the party in 2010, but he was beaten to the job by his younger sibling.

He ended up quitting parliament in 2013 to work for the International Rescue Committee charity in New York.

Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Miliband (r) pictured here with Ed, has said the two men will "remain brothers for life"

But since Labour's election defeat, he has made several interventions on the party's performance and future prospects.

In a critical assessment of Labour's campaign, he said voters "did not want what was being offered".

And he said the leadership had allowed itself to be portrayed as "moving backwards".

But the former MP has said he finds "no consolation in any sense of vindication" about Labour's performance.

'Too limited'

Ed Miliband resigned as Labour leader in the aftermath of the defeat, which saw Labour reduced to its lowest number of MPs since 1987.

Lord Prescott told the Daily Politics show that Mr Miliband should not have resigned, saying it was "the job of the leader to carry through the period of transition".

"If you lose it you take the hammering but you don't run away. But that's what he did. That was wrong," he said.

A contest to replace him is under way, with Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh and Jeremy Corbyn vying for the job.

Lord Prescott said he thought the contest was "too limited" and that there should be more candidates on the ballot to allow "a wider debate".

The winner will be announced before the party conference in September.