Ed Miliband made clear last night that at the next election Labour will stand on its most Left-wing economic manifesto since the Kinnock era.
He announced that a future Labour government would be ‘very different’ from those of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
The Labour leader signalled that he would seek to build a ‘different economy’ from the plans pursued by New Labour and the Coalition.
Mr Miliband said he has ‘learned lessons’ from New Labour’s approach to business and the City and said he would aim to water down the importance of financial services in the economy.
In an interview with the BBC, he laid out plans to impose more regulation, tax bankers more heavily and build ‘a different banking system’.
Mr Miliband made clear that the party is prepared to offer economic plans at the next general election that are unabashedly more Left-wing than any Labour manifesto since the 1992 election when Neil Kinnock was the party’s leader.
He insisted that he would not return the party to its socialist roots but indicated that he wants to target bankers, who were courted by the Blair government.
He said: ‘I’ll say something very clear to you. It’s going to be very different from the Labour government of 1997 to 2010. New Labour did great things.
New Labour took on some of the issues that Mrs Thatcher had left behind, and had done bad things to the country; in public services and elsewhere.
‘We’re not going back to, for example, nationalisation, and mass public ownership. New Labour was right about that.
‘But we’ve learnt lessons. The financial crisis, that teaches us a lesson about deregulation, about banks, about our economy being too reliant on financial services.’
Mr Miliband announced that a future Labour government would be ‘very different’ from those of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and signalled he would seek ‘different economy’ than that of New Labour and the Coalition
Mr Miliband’s aides have signalled that he is prepared to go into the next election offering to spend more money than the Coalition in 2015/16.
They are wrestling with devising policies at a time when the straitened economic situation mean it is politically impossible to offer traditional socialist tax and spend policies.
More...
NHS should focus on care not just facts and figures, Cameron warns nursing leaders who slammed his ‘stupid’ back to basics plan
'Don't panic Mr Miliband!' Labour's Diane Abbott tells Ed Miliband to stop apologising for his party's record on immigration
But Mr Miliband signalled that Labour would seek to tax bankers to pay for more state intervention in the economy.
‘There will be much less money around,’ he admitted. ‘It will be tough times. What would I do on day one as prime minister? Get our young people working again. How would I do it? Tax the bankers’ bonuses and put our young people back to work. That is a different choice from this government.’
Mr Miliband made clear that the party is prepared to offer economic plans at the next general election that are unabashedly more Left-wing than any Labour manifesto since the 1992 election when Neil Kinnock (centre) was the party's leader
He added: ‘I think we need a different way forward for our economy: a different banking system, a different system for our young people, vocational education, apprenticeships, taking on some of the energy companies and others who are ripping people off.’
Mr Miliband is under pressure from internal critics and even his allies question his readiness for government.
David Watts, the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, yesterday admitted the leader has ‘a way to go’ before voters see him as a prospective prime minister.He said Mr Miliband’s standing is undermined by principled but ‘unpopular’ decisions on issues such as welfare, where Labour has opposed the Government’s cap on benefits.