Miliband declares: We're the true One Nation party

UK Political Editor

Wednesday 3 October 2012

ED Miliband has attempted to grab the centre ground of British politics by insisting that Labour and not the Tories are now the One Nation party.

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MICHAEL SETTLE UK POLITICAL EDITOR

The phrase – coined by Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the 19th century to emphasise how the rich should help the poor – was used repeatedly by the Labour leader as he roamed the conference stage in Manchester without notes.

Mr Miliband claimed David Cameron had lost the right to call himself a One Nation prime minister or say "we are all in this together" because of the way he had governed, particularly his decision to hand tax cuts to millionaires while cutting services and benefits for the poor."You can't be a One Nation prime minister if all you do is seek to divide the country between north and south, between public and private, between those who can work and those who can't work," he declared.In his keynote speech, the Labour leader was also candid about what would happen under a future Labour government: there would be tax hikes for the rich, "many cuts" to public spending instigated by the Tories that could not be reversed, and "tough settlements for the public services that will make life harder for those who use them and harder for those who work in them".After a video presentation that sought to give an insight into Mr Miliband's background, he explained how his upbringing as the child of Jewish refugees from Nazism and a comprehensive schoolboy in north London helped to form his political beliefs.The self-professed atheist described himself as a "person of faith", whose faith was not in a religion but in a shared value system, which involved the duty to work together to make the country better and never to shrug his shoulders at injustice.However, it was the Labour leader's bold attempt to lay claim to the One Nation policy that underpinned his speech.He said he did not become Labour leader to reinvent the world of Disraeli or Clement Attlee but made clear he believed in the spirit of one nation "where everyone has a stake-where prosperity is fairly shared-where we have a shared destiny, a sense of shared endeavour and a common life that we lead together".Mr Miliband set out his proposals for a One Nation banking system, in which deposits left by ordinary savers in high street branches could not be used in the "casino" activities of the same bank's trading arm; One Nation education, providing a "gold standard" vocational education for children in England who were not going to university; and One Nation business with reforms to takeover rules and shareholder rights to encourage long-term investment.He brought the audience to its feet by saying the Conservatives, despite their belief they were "born to rule", had turned out to be shambolic."Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, out-of-touch, U-turning, pledge-breaking, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, back-of-the-envelope, miserable shower than this Prime Minister and this Government?" he asked to loud applause and one of four standing ovations.He ended his speech by declaring: "This is who I am, this is what I believe in. This is my faith - one nation, a country for all with everyone playing their part, a Britain we rebuild together."Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, described the speech as a tour de force that showed Mr Miliband was a prime minister-in-waiting.Margaret Curran, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, said it was "fantastic" and showed he had a "Thatcheresque" inner confidence.Angus Robertson, for the SNP, said Mr Miliband had demonstrated "Labour now amounts to nothing more than a party of one nation Toryism", while Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party chairman, said the Labour leader still stood for "more spending, more borrowing and more debt".

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Miliband declares: We're the true One Nation party

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