Labour's general election chief has claimed the party needs to "reconnect" with voters by developing a new policy platform.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alan Milburn was responding to stark new poll findings at a fringe meeting at the party's annual conference in Brighton on Monday.

The Cabinet minister said the research bore out the results of some of Labour's own studies, showing a dramatic drop in confidence that the government was working for voters.

The Populus survey for the Times found that Tony Blair's administration is perceived to be to the right of the electorate's own views.

Crucial swing voters also see Labour on average as more right-wing than themselves, while the party's own supporters put the government further to right than Michael Howard's Tories.

However Milburn said the findings were an opportunity, rather than a threat to Blair, as they showed that "the public hasn't walked away from us in values terms".

"What they need to know is that we haven't walked away from them," he added.

"That means that we have to demonstrate through policy that we are on their side in the struggle in their lives."

Some observers interpreted the move as at odds with chancellor Gordon Brown, who had earlier told the conference that his economic record would be "central" to the campaign.

Milburn made efforts to praise Brown's speech and acknowledged that Labour would have to "remind people of what has been achieved".

But he did stress that a new style of campaign would be required after eight years in power next year.

"In an atmosphere of greater cynicism and frankly more distrust, simply screaming louder and louder about our achievements in the past is not necessarily the way to get through to the public," he said.

In his new role drawing up the party's third term manifesto he pledged to "build on our achievements as we look forward".

"You do that through policy... and policy only works if you set out how it connects with ordinary people," he added.
 
He also dismissed the distinction between progressive and radical policies.

The manifesto must "align radical politics on means and progressive politics on ends" Milburn said.