Labour is set to publish its third term manifesto in the Midlands on Wednesday.

Chancellor Gordon Brown confirmed the news in an interview on Sunday saying that its theme would be "that the economy is at the centre of creating an opportunity for society".

Meanwhile election co-ordinator Alan Milburn has said the document will be "pretty New Labour" in tone.

The campaign chief, who has been responsible for drawing up the manifesto, told the BBC's Politics Show on Sunday that it would pledge to continue "radical" public service reforms.

But he drew back from repeating the prime minister's promise that the third term blueprint would be "unremittingly New Labour".

"It will be radical. It will be ambitious. It will be about realising traditional Labour values of compassion and opportunity, but only doing so through modern policies," Milburn said.

"What we won't be doing is advocating that we can return to the past in our public services, either by cutting public services - which is what the Conservatives now propose - or by returning to the days when you had monolithic services that disempower parents and patients.

"Instead, we want to drive forward so that in the future the power is in the hands of the individual citizen, the parent and the patient, with shorter waiting times, more choice, greater diversity in these services, so we genuinely do get services which are right in their values but modern in their means.

"[It] will have a simple commitment, which is in a world of ever faster change... we say that the job of progressive government is not to stand aside - that's the Conservative position. We say the government should be there, providing more help and security and opportunity for decent hard-working families and pensioners in this country.

"So, for example, we want not just a stable economy, but we want to make sure we can get one million more homeowners on the housing ladder. We want to make sure that we don't just have investment going into public services, but we drive forward big changes in those public services."

Reforms

Cabinet minister Peter Hain told ePolitix.com that the manifesto will be "packed with major reforms" that would put a third term Tony Blair administration "on a par with the great reforming government of Clement Atlee".