“My feelings about the position of the Labour Party are of great distress,” he said.
“To see Labour this far from power is very distressing. The fact that we are probably now further from power then we have been since the 1930’s is very distressing to me.”
The antisemitism crisis that has engulfed the party was a particular source of dismay.
He said: “The idea that Labour and antisemitism are in the same sentence is a shocking state of affairs. And I think it’s very important to say that there’s evidently been a problem and it needs to be addressed.
“The job of tackling antisemitism is not just for Jews, it’s a job that applies to all of us. Because we all know that when Jews are targeted, other minorities will be targeted before long. And it’s very important that we stand up about that.”
Mr Freedland then asked him: ““Could you look this or any other audience in the eye and urge them to vote and make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister?”
Mr Miliband responded: “I think that the tragedy is that Labour’s chances of forming a government mean that the question at the next election that confronts us is whether Labour is in a position to be a vital opposition or not. And that is a tragic state of affairs.”
Pressed further, he added: “I’m going to urge people to vote Labour, if that’s what you’re asking. I think the idea that we could effectively become a one-party state is very dangerous.”
Mr Miliband, who was taking part in the Alan Howard Foundation/JW3 Speaker Series, also discussed the refugee crisis, both in Europe and in countries in Africa and the Middle East.
“This is not a problem or a challenge that is going to go away any time soon”, he said.
“The vast bulk of refugees are being hosted in poor countries, and rich countries at best are offering to build refugee camps.
“Those countries host and deliver this refugee support with an inadequate, threadbare system of international aid.
“It’s morally wrong, but also strategically stupid, because you’re inviting instability in these countries.”
He also warned of the dangers conflating the separate issues of immigration and refugees, saying that when the two debates get confused, “we end up in trouble.”
“An immigrant is someone who is seeking a life in another country for fundamentally economic reasons. A refugee is someone who is fleeing their home country for fundamentally political reasons. One is seeking a better life, the other is fleeing to save their life.”
“With this audience”, he went on to say, “we don’t need to go searching for the sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of refugees, many of whom are extraordinary citizens of this and other countries.
“[Writer, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel said to me, “Refugees may be unpopular, but refuge isn’t. Go and defend refuge, because people understand that.”
