LABOUR leader Ed Miliband will today set out his vision of a "one nation economy" based on high skills, high wages and entrepreneurship.
In his speech, he will insist his party's new approach will involve a decisive shift towards innovation and dynamism by backing small businesses with a proposed rates cut, which could benefit some companies by £2000 over two years.
He will argue how the vital link between family finances benefiting from a growing economy has now been broken.
Mr Miliband will say this is "Because too many of the jobs we are creating in this country are just too low paid, too many of the gains in our economy are just scooped up by a privileged few, including those with big bonuses and too often you are left being charged over the odds.
"They used to say 'A rising tide lifts all boats' - now the rising tide just seems to lift the yachts."
Emphasising how Britain has had the slowest recovery for 100 years, with the longest fall in living standards since 1870, Mr Miliband will insist David Cameron should be embarrassed about his record as Prime Minister over 39 months, 38 of which have seen prices rising faster than wages.
He will tell delegates: "At the General Election in 2015, you should ask yourself: Am I better off now than I was five years ago?
"You've made the sacrifices, but you've not got the rewards. You were the first one into the recession but you are the last one out.
"Will the pain be worth it for the gain under this Government? No. They are not going to solve the cost of living crisis because for them it is not an accident of their economic policy, it is their economic policy.
"David Cameron talks about Britain being in a global race, but what he doesn't tell you is he thinks the only way Britain can win is for you to lose."
Mr Miliband will insist the only way Britain can win is not a race to the bottom with the lowest wages and the worst workplace terms and conditions, but to the top by giving small businesses a proposed rate cut, helping consumers get a fair deal and equipping young people with skills.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, in his speech yesterday, said a Labour government would "not flinch" from making the hard choices necessary to cut the deficit and restore Britain's economy to health.
"Let us show we will not duck the great challenges we will face on spending and the deficit and let us build an economy that works for all working families in every part of Britain," he said.
Mr Balls made clear, under its professed "iron discipline", a future Labour administration would also have to make spending cuts, manage the nation's finances with less money and would not be able to reverse all the Tories' tax rises.
In an attempt to convince voters of Labour's fiscal credibility, he said his party would ask the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK Government's independent economic watchdog, to audit its tax and spending plans for the next General Election.
Technically, this will need a vote at Westminster to change the remit of the OBR. Its chairman, Robert Chote, said the proposal was "a good idea" but would mean the watchdog would need extra resources and would need sight of parties' manifesto plans months in advance.
However, Tory Treasury Minister Sajid Javid branded Labour's request to the OBR "a stunt" to distract people from "the fact Labour have been found out for making unfunded commitments".
In another move, Mr Balls said a Labour government would give working parents 25 hours a week of free childcare to be funded by an £800 million increase in the bank levy rate. This would mean an £80m consequential increase for the Scottish Government, which could spend the money how it liked.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article