GORDON BROWN proved himself a walking contradiction yesterday after he claimed that Labour needed to learn from its past in choosing a leader that “inspires hope.”

The former prime minister was constantly pacing up and down during his speech as he swung from asserting that the party needed fresh change to making thinly veiled attacks on leadership favourite Jeremy Corbyn, despite having promised not to attack any particular candidate.

In what looked like yet another “intervention” by a senior politician, after Tony Blair and his ex-spin doctor Alastair Campbell both had a pop, Mr Brown warned that Labour would be “powerless” as a “party of protest” and urged voters to consider its chequered history.

Mr Brown quoted a succession of figures from history, from Keir Hardie to Nelson Mandela, in a bizarre bid to imply that protest and changing the world were incompatible.

The new leader needs to be “credible, electable and popular,” he said, but failed to mention that polls have consistently shown Mr Corbyn as the most popular and inspiring candidate compared with rivals Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.

A spokesperson from Mr Corbyn’s campaign office said: “It is necessary to be credible but credibility cannot mean an orthodoxy of austerity that chokes off recovery — instead we need a Labour Party that stands for growth, investment and innovation across the whole country.

“Polls vary but most have shown that Corbyn is the candidate most likely to engage with voters beyond Labour’s existing supporters. Whoever wins this leadership election will have a massive direct personal mandate and that is a powerful springboard for winning in 2020.”

Although he did not mention names, Mr Brown went on to say that the leader should not have “alliances” with groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

The jibe was a clear dig at Mr Corbyn’s successful campaign as the Islington North MP has made no secret of engaging in international peace talks.

Mr Brown claimed: “If our global alliances are going to be alliances with Hezbollah and Hamas and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, there is no chance of building a worldwide alliance that could deal with poverty and inequality and climate change and financial instability.”

Meanwhile, a “better business plan” was launched on Sunday outlining Mr Corbyn’s policies for economic growth by supporting and protecting the rights of owners of small firms and the self-employed.

It includes implementing rent controls, cracking down on corporate tax avoidance, small business rate freezes, a higher minimum wage, improving social security for self-employed people and investing in renewable energy.

His spokesperson added: “Jeremy Corbyn’s clear plans for growth-led recovery rather than austerity mark him out as the candidate offering hope and drawing in thousands of new people in the process.”