Tony Blair has issued a warning to Ed Miliband about turning Labour back into a left-wing party of protest.
In an article for the New Statesman, he says Labour is "back as the party opposing 'Tory cuts'".
And as a result it is in danger of becoming a "repository for people's anger" rather than a party with answers to the country's problems.
The former prime minister has been increasing his profile in the UK in recent months.
He does not mention Mr Miliband by name in the article but is explicit in his criticism of the party's strategy under his leadership.
'Status quo'Mr Blair warns against the return of the "familiar old left/right battles," of the kind that dominated British politics before he moved the Labour Party on to the centre ground.
"Suddenly, parts of the political landscape that had been cast in shadow for some years, at least under New Labour and the first years of coalition government, are illuminated in sharp relief," he writes.
"The Conservative Party is back clothing itself in the mantle of fiscal responsibility, buttressed by moves against 'benefit scroungers', immigrants squeezing out British workers and - of course - Labour profligacy.
"The Labour Party is back as the party opposing 'Tory cuts', highlighting the cruel consequences of the Conservative policies on welfare and representing the disadvantaged and vulnerable (the Lib Dems are in a bit of a fix, frankly)."
Mr Blair warns Labour against settling back into its "old territory of defending the status quo" and allying itself "to the interests that will passionately and often justly oppose what the government is doing".
'Vision of future'He insists Labour's "guiding principle" should be to seek answers, not become the "repository for people's anger".
"In these times, above all, people want leadership," he added.
In another apparent dig at Mr Miliband, Mr Blair said the public wanted to "know where we're coming from because that is a clue as to where we would go, if elected".
Producing a "vision of the future" is "of the absolute essence", Mr Blair adds.
In his most detailed intervention in UK politics since leaving Downing Street, Mr Blair sets out where he thinks Labour should be positioning itself ahead of the next general election.
"It means, for example, that we don't tack right on immigration and Europe, and tack left on tax and spending," he writes.
"It keeps us out of our comfort zone but on a centre ground that is ultimately both more satisfying and more productive for party and country."
He also urges the Labour leadership to ask itself questions such as: "What is driving the rise in housing benefit spending, and if it is the absence of housing, how do we build more?"
And he calls for greater focus on increasing the skills of unemployed people, setting the right balance between universal and means-tested help for pensioners, and use of DNA technology to cut crime.
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