Ed Miliband urges Daily Mail owner to examine 'culture' 4 October 2013 Last updated at 05:53 Newspaper owner Lord Rothermere must take a "long, hard look" at the "culture and practices" of his Mail titles, Ed Miliband has said. The proprietor has apologised to Mr Miliband for a Mail on Sunday reporter intruding on a family memorial service. Labour said this was "an important step" but Lord Rothermere had failed to address the Daily Mail's articles about the party leader's late father, Ralph. Mr Miliband said he wanted to know "how these practices are allowed to happen." Last weekend, a Daily Mail article labelled Ralph Miliband, a Marxist academic who died in 1994, "the man who hated Britain." Line crossed That prompted Mr Miliband to complain about his father being "smeared," but although the newspaper offered him a right of reply, it has continued to defend its coverage. In a separate incident on Thursday, the Mail on Sunday suspended two of its journalists after it emerged the paper had gate-crashed a service for the Labour leader's uncle, at which they pressed the family for reaction to the original Daily Mail article. Quentin Letts: "He was furious that we won the Falklands war... is that the behaviour of a man who loves his country?" "Sending a reporter to my late uncle's memorial crosses a line of common decency," Mr Miliband wrote to Lord Rothermere. Mail on Sunday editor Geordie Greig said the reporter had been sent without his knowledge and an investigation was being held into "a decision which was wrong." Both he and Lord Rothermere apologised "unreservedly," with the peer also writing to Mr Miliband. In response to the letter, a Labour spokesman said: "Lord Rothermere has repeated the apology for the behaviour of the Mail on Sunday. This is an important step. Who is Lord Rothermere? The 4th Viscount Rothermere - or Jonathan Harmsworth - inherited Associated Newspapers (now DMG Media) when his father Vere died in 1998 He became the fourth Rothermere to take the title and become chairman of the media group He was previously managing editor of the Evening Standard, which the Rothermeres bought in 1980 Lord Rothermere is ranked 120th on the Times Rich List, with an estimated fortune of £720m The Harmsworth brothers Alfred and Harold founded the Daily Mail in 1896 - the "Viscount Rothermere" title was created for Harold Harmsworth in 1919 Before WWII, Harold Harmsworth praised Adolf Hitler and in 1934 penned a Daily Mail article headlined "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" celebrating Oswald Mosley's British fascists However, he says he does not believe it reflected the culture and practices of the Mail or Mail on Sunday, and also he does not address the treatment of Ed Miliband's dad over the last few days. We continue to believe these issues need addressing and until they do so, many people will continue to believe that these newspapers are not upholding the values and decency of the British people. In an interview with debating blog LabourList, Mr Miliband added: "It's time [Lord Rothermere] took a long, hard look at the way his papers are run... I want to know how these practices are allowed to happen. Not on the basis of being 'one rogue reporter' or 'one rogue editor' but what is it about the culture and practice of the organisation that makes these kind of things acceptable? Because the decisions made by an individual in an organisation are shaped by the culture and practice of an organisation. Mr Miliband said he had felt "apprehension" before reacting to the papers' coverage of his family. "It's the first time this has happened to me in this way," he said. But many other people have been affected by this sort of practice and I'm serious about what I said in my letter to Lord Rothermere - he's got to look into the culture and practice of the Mail and the Mail on Sunday. Neither Labour nor the Daily Mail and General Trust - the papers' parent company - have released the text of Lord Rothermere's response to Mr Miliband. Useful idiot On Thursday's Question Time on BBC One, the Daily Mail's political sketch writer Quentin Letts defended its original reporting of the views of Ralph Miliband, a Jewish refugee who fled Belgium aged 16 to escape the Nazis and who served in the Royal Navy during WWII. Yvette Cooper: "I just think this is shocking, to decide to pursue and distort and twist the words of a father in order to pursue an attack on a son." Mr Letts described the socialist academic as a "useful idiot" for "people that were promoting Marxism" during the Cold War. Mr Letts added that Ralph Miliband had been "furious that we won the Falklands War. He wanted us to lose the Falklands War. Is that the behaviour of a man who loves his country? I'm not sure it is. However, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, praising Ralph Miliband's military record, told the programme: "People who haven't served their country and fought for their country should really think before deciding that they have a monopoly on determining British values." Meanwhile Ralph Miliband's biographer, Michael Newman, said the late academic "wanted a different kind of Britain" but "wasn't against Britain."