Labour must rethink policies: Miliband

AFP/London

Britain’s embattled opposition chief Ed Miliband sought to relaunch his leadership yesterday, with a crucial policy speech saying that only his Labour party can deliver “fairness in tough times.”Miliband faces poor poll ratings and renewed criticism from within his own party of his performance, along with an embarrassing incident last week involving a typographical mistake in a Twitter message. But in a speech in central London, Miliband said that his centre-left party had to accept that if it regained power it would be left with a deficit to tackle by the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.“We must rethink how we achieve fairness for Britain in a time when there is less money to spend,” Miliband said. He said the party must fight its reputation in Britain for taxing and spending and that it would have to move away from the policies of former Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Of the challenges he faces as Labour leader, Miliband said: “Bring it on.” Miliband said a Labour government would tax bank bonuses and use the money to get young unemployed people into work, and in the longer term would make “choices that favour the hard-working majority.” In a radio interview earlier yesterday, Miliband dismissed criticism within the party as “noises off”, adding: “I have a very strong inner belief that I will win the race.” Miliband denied that Labour’s spending while in government had brought about the economic crisis, pointing to the global downturn and said the new direction was not an admission of past failures.“It’s about saying the circumstances are different,” he said. “I take our share of responsibility for the financial crisis. I don’t believe that we regulated the banks properly but I don’t believe the propaganda of our opponents.”He said that the public instinctively moved to the left in good times and entrusted the right with tough decisions in bad times.Ed Miliband has had a torrid week, with a former policy guru who sits in the House of Lords, Maurice Glasman, criticising his leadership as having “no strategy, no narrative and little energy”.On Friday Miliband’s public image also took a blow when he paid tribute to late television host Bob Holness on Twitter, but mistakenly named the show he presented as “Blackbusters” instead of “Blockbusters.”That came a day after he was forced to rebuke black Labour lawmaker Diane Abbott for apparently divisive Twitter comments she made on race, phoning her to berate her while she was in the middle of a television interview.