Jon Cruddas has said the party must "learn from our history of success" if it is to win the next general election.
Mr Cruddas, who is heading Labour’s policy review, said at an IPPR fringe at the party’s conference:
"My basic proposition is Labour only wins when it contests the national story.
“There have been three basic periods that triggered majority governments, and in each of those periods of successful Labour campaigning and organisation and mobilisation it has contested and reframed a story of national hope and renewal, counterposed to one of national decline by our opponents."
Mr Cruddas said the new innovation of fixed-term parliaments allows time for Labour to build "a robust, radical agenda for the next election".
He said past Labour victories had, "in big, primary colours contested the national story successfully".
"Labour became embedded in a different national story, quite an emotion-driven one, the policies flowed from that,” he said.
“The frame we are trying to work on now is the idea of rebuilding
"Three areas of work we are doing. One is rebuilding the economy, second is rebuilding society and third, rebuilding the economy.
"In a couple of weeks the Shadow Cabinet will be going in an away day and will agree the programme for those three work streams for the next few months."
Mr Cruddas said the current focus is less on "micro-policy and more about Britain 2020, where we are headed".
"We need to compare and contrast a vision of hope with versus one of managed decline."
Mr Cruddas said it is “self-evident where Labour needs to be in trying to shape a positive hopeful, unifying vision of
He also said he has no plans to become a Cabinet Minister in the future. "I don't want anything out of it," he said of his decision to head up the policy review.
