Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has offered Jeremy Corbyn his support - and called on the rest of the party to do the same.
The new leader has secured a "clear victory" from all sections of the party and the win must be respected, Mr Miliband said.
But he called on his successor to "reach out" to all wings of the party and bring some of his opponents into the shadow cabinet.
He said: "I offer Jeremy Corbyn my support in what is a very difficult and demanding job and I hope that people across the party will do the same.
"At the same time, I hope and expect that Jeremy will do everything he can to reach out and use the talents of people right across the party in the task of taking on the Tories and facing up to the very big challenges that we face."
Mr Miliband denied suggestions the result had been affected by entryism in the contest.
He told the BBC: "Anybody looking at this result in a fair minded way will not believe it is about that.
"It's about the fact that right across our party, party members, party supporters, affiliated supporters, they voted for Jeremy Corbyn.
"I believe it is a massive opportunity for our party. People wouldn't believe it was possible to have a political party of 500,000."
Mr Miliband, who will now remain on the backbenches, defended his decision to quit the day after the election, saying it was the "right thing to do".
The former leader also dismissed claims that Mr Corbyn's victory means total annihilation of the party.
"I don't believe that," he said. "Jeremy has won a very clear victory in all sections of the party. I believe we should respect that mandate.
"At the same time, I believe he has a big responsibility. It's a big responsibility, a responsibility that I remember from my time as leader, to use the talents of people who didn't vote for him, who may have said things about him in the leadership election that weren't particularly complimentary."
He added: "I hope also, and I expect him to do this, that Jeremy reaches out to all parts of the party because he has a big job to do to unite the party and I believe he does intend to do that."
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