Video: Miliband makes appeal to disaffected Lib Dems Press Association

Ed Miliband today urged Liberal Democrats disillusioned with their party leadership to work with Labour on policy as a way of realigning politics and helping Labour to learn from its own errors in government, such as over civil liberties. Holding the first of what is planned to be a series of monthly press conferences, he announced that he had invited Richard Grayson, the former Lib Dem policy director, to make submissions to the Labour policy review, and urged other Liberal Democrats to do the same.

The Labour leader said: "There are many people in that party that are deeply frustrated, even ashamed, at the way in which their progressive tradition has been hijacked by the coalition."

Miliband claimed "the kaleidoscope in British politics has been shaken and I do not think the pieces are properly settled. If you look at the split between the Orange Book tendency, those Liberal Democrats more on the right, and those on the left I think there is a real disquiet on the left and centre of the party about the direction of the party."

The primary purpose of the offer was not gain defections, but to define the battleground of politics.

He said it strengthened Labour's hand to work with others to define politics in a different way from Nick Clegg and David Cameron.

The coalition's overall impact was to shift politics to the right, Miliband said, adding: "It is plain to see that when David Cameron said he wanted to make a big, open and comprehensive offer about the future of politics, his real purpose was to use them to justify the agenda of the right."

He claimed Cameron was not on the centre ground of politics, and said that at this stage he could not envisage working with Nick Clegg as Liberal Democrat leader, although that was a matter for the his party, not him, he said.

Miliband added: "I do not believe all wisdom lies in one party – to those that are reluctant to abandon ship but are concerned by the direction of their party I invite them to work with us in areas of common interest."

He admitted that at one point during his leadership campaign he had called for the Lib Dems to become extinct, but said his stance had changed.

He denied he had been invisible as party leader so far, and urged people to view his leadership over the long term, saying politics was not like a weekly vote on the TV talent show The X Factor. "We are ahead in the polls; 50,000 people have joined us; this is not party that people are moving away from," Miliband said.

He said he had a clear plan as leader, but was under no illusions about the scale of the task facing him. David Cameron did not understand the impact of the decisions he was making, Miliband said, adding that in coalition negotiations in May Lib Dem figures such as David Laws and Chris Huhne had appeared indifferent to the impact of backing eradication of the deficit in one parliament.

He again refused to admit that Labour had overspent in government, saying that borrowing levels in 2007-08 were not aberrant, and said the fault lay in leaving the economy overexposed to the downturn in financial services.

He said he supported peaceful demonstrations against the rise in tuition fees but said "the law should be brought to bear on those responsible for violence" at the student protests last week, adding that such violence undermined the cause of law-abiding young people.

He said he would not ask people to hold their breath waiting for him to go on marches.

In 2011, he predicted, the central arguments would be whether coalition policy represented a path for job creation. He said he believed getting people back to work was the route to a lower deficit. He said he opposed the rise in VAT coming in on 4 January, backed retention of the future jobs fund, wanted an increased bank levy and would not cut construction capital spending.