The coalition has failed to get to grips properly with the tasks of government since May 6 and Labour now has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to halt the coalition in its tracks.

Our first elected leader since 1994, the longest leadership race in memory, a closely fought but at times quiet and unengaging contest – but the end of this four month marathon signals that it’s time for a change in our party, from top to bottom. We’ve passed the point of talking about triangulation and new New Labour, the changes that Labour campaigners and activists want to be part of is a reconnection of Labour with people and communities from all across the country. The method will depend on how Ed Miliband deals with the challenges that he faces, but even if David had won, the brothers would had to reach the same goal of making Labour relevant again as a political and social force and to challenge the coalition on key areas of policy which demonstrate our values at this time of great change in our society and economy.

The coalition is about to announce the full range of cuts to our public services after the conference season is over. Civil servants will be holed up in their offices during October while Tory ministers are in Birmingham trying to reassure their activists and the media that 25 per cent cuts to government spending will not cause a double-dip recession or put jobs and stability at risk.

Our new leader faces a formidable challenge almost immediately – how to respond to these cuts and what to say on October 20 when the full extent of the reduction in spending is unveiled by George Osborne and Danny Alexander. The easy option would be to use Labour’s off the shelf pre-election policy which translates as opposition to any cuts to spending on this scale and offers only £15 billion worth of cuts in 2010-11. This is the easy option, but its not the right one.

Research from Demos and YouGov in August proved what many people had felt since the election, that Labour’s message on tackling the deficit was simplistic and short-sighted. Even if the principle of protecting public spending was right, Labour’s unwillingness to offer a transparent answer to voters before both May 6 and since on how we would have reduced the deficit was wrong, and according to the research it did cost us votes.

The change of leadership in Labour will also help us change the way we offer our policies and solutions to voters and help us to reassess our response to the deficit and the challenge of reducing public spending in the short term. Some new Labour MPs have argued that being transparent and honest with voters about where we would cut public spending is wrong as it engages the opposition on its own terms, but I disagree with this. One of Labour’s biggest challenges is proving in a very short space of time that Ed Miliband and his shadow cabinet are a credible government in waiting. To do this we need a credible solution to deficit reduction and one that is understood by voters as easily as the coalition’s promise to slash budgets by 25 per cent.

This isn’t the only change which Ed has to manage. The change in our politics since the election and the formation of the coalition has highlighted the weakness of the Labour party as an election-fighting machine which is responsive and engaging to members and supporters. Ed must now reshape the party’s structure and organisational ethos. We need to be more open and welcoming to volunteers, new members, and supporters who have joined the party, over 30,000 since May. We need a process for debating and discussing policy within the party which isn’t symbolic and alienating like Partnership in Power was. We also need to consider how we select our candidates for parliamentary elections to stem the view amongst many Labour activists that the trade unions, party hacks and party power-brokers hold the key to winning selection contests in Labour-held seats – even if this is more a perception than a reality.

Finally, Ed will have to initiate a shift in gear from Labour’s shadow minsters. It’s time to start holding the coalition to account and challenging them not only on the impact of their indiscriminate cuts, but also on their policies on schools, restructuring the health service, scrapping Labour’s antisocial behaviour measures, and capping housing benefit for lager families. New energy on the shadow frontbench and an end to the distraction of the leadership contest will help Labour rebuild itself as an effective opposition, using parliament to challenge coalition policies and rhetoric.