LABOUR leader Ed Miliband said his party offered hope and a solution to the country’s economic problems when he visited Stroud on Saturday to drum up support for his party’s candidates ahead of next month’s county council elections.

The Labour supremo was greeted in the town centre at around 4pm by Labour members and the party’s parliamentary candidate for Stroud, David Drew, who will be bidding to regain the seat he lost to Conservative MP Neil Carmichael at the next general election in 2015.

Impervious to the pouring rain, Mr Miliband walked along King Street and up through the High Street, pausing to enter shops and speak to staff, and have his photograph taken with shoppers and passers-by.

Taking his place on a small raised platform outside Woodruffs café, he then went on to deliver a 20-minute unscripted speech and answer questions from the crowd of around 200 spectators who had gathered to hear him speak.

Before turning his attention to politics and the state of the economy, however, the leader of the Opposition took the microphone and joined with his audience to sing happy birthday to David Drew, who celebrated turning 61 on Saturday (April 13).

In his address, Mr Miliband said his first priority would be to tackle youth unemployment and he vowed to tax bankers’ bonuses to fund job schemes for the one million young people who are currently out of work.

If returned to office, he said his party would confront the country’s ‘profound housing crisis’ by building more council homes and affordable properties.

And Mr Miliband accused train companies and energy suppliers of 'ripping off' customers, saying Labour was the only party prepared to take on 'the powerful vested interests' to get consumers a better deal.

He went on to attack the government’s austerity programme, branding it a ‘failure’ and said: “I don't just offer a different style of management to David Cameron, I offer a different vision of this country.

“I think the way Britain succeeds is by being a united country, not a divided country.

"That is my vision, and I urge you to go to the county council elections and vote Labour and then vote for David Drew in 2015."

He said: “Can we, the Labour Party, turn the problems around? My answer is yes.”

 

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Ed Miliband has faced repeated criticism in the past for lacking charisma but up close and in person he had a real presence, commanding the stage and handling awkward questions from members of the public with confidence and skill.

Not only did he prove he was an accomplished public speaker, he also showed he had a sense of humour, cracking more than a few jokes to get his audience on side.

After his speech he was happy to throw open the floor and in his answers to a range of questions, he promised a Labour government would fight the privatisation of the NHS, lead a ‘crackdown’ on offshore tax havens and raise taxes on the wealthiest.

Fielding a question about the controversial ‘bedroom tax’, Mr Miliband said it was ‘iniquitous’ and ‘wrong’, contrasting it with his party’s policy for a mansion tax on houses worth over £2 million.

When asked to denounce New Labour, Mr Miliband refused. He conceded that his party had made mistakes on Iraq and immigration and by building too few council houses whilst in power, but he mounted a staunch defence of his party’s record, highlighting increased investment in healthcare and education and the introduction of the national minimum wage as proof of his party’s achievements during the Blair years.

Mr Miliband also voiced his backing for a living wage of £7.45 an hour to be paid to workers and, in a reply to a question about the UK’s nuclear weapons system Trident, he said he supported retaining a deterrent but was in favour of ‘multilateral not unilateral disarmament’.

For quotes from an exclusive interview with Mr Miliband see next week's SNJ...