ED Miliband will launch an unprecedented attack on his mentor Gordon Brown in his crucial conference speech today, targeting his infamous broken pledge to "end boom and bust".

The new Labour leader will reach out to voters who rejected his predecessor by criticising his failure to tame reckless City financiers and head off the deepest recession since the war.

Mr Miliband will accuse Labour under Mr Brown of becoming "the establishment" - urging the party to instead embrace "different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics".

And he will say to the watching public: "When you saw the worst financial crisis in a generation, I understand your anger that Labour hadn't stood up to the old ways in the City, which said deregulation was the answer.

"When you wanted to make it possible for your kids to get on in life, I understand why you felt that we were stuck in the old thinking about higher and higher levels of personal debt, including tuition fees.

"And when you saw jobs disappear and economic security undermined, I understand your anger at a Labour government that claimed it could end boom and bust".

Although Mr Miliband will not criticise Gordon Brown by name, the decision to distance himself from the former prime minister's best-known - and most controversial - promise, will inevitably be seen as a personal attack.

Ironically, it came as the leader's aides denied conference rumours that Mr Brown was "hitting the phones" on his behalf as the dramatic leadership contest neared its end.