LABOUR pre-election in-fighting has continued with Len McCluskey, the Unite union leader, berating senior party figures who have attacked Ed Miliband by describing them as "Blairite retreads", who should "stop stabbing Labour in the back".
Recently, Lord Mandelson, the former Business Secretary, branded the party's mansion tax "crude", Alan Milburn, the ex-Health Secretary, accused the Labour leader of running a "comfort zone campaign" while Lord Hutton, the former Defence Secretary, insisted Labour had to have "a message about what it will do to keep the economy moving ahead".
Already, Lord Prescott, the ex-Deputy Prime Minister, has denounced some of his critical colleagues as "Tory collaborators".
Addressing union officials in Birmingham, Mr McCluskey argued that ahead of the General Election the public was now poised between hope and fear, claiming that Labour should bottle some of the Syriza spirit in Greece and take the anti-austerity message to UK voters.
"What it doesn't need is the Blairite retreads; the people who sucked the life out of the last Labour government, attacking every progressive impulse like the mansion tax and saving our NHS.
"So I say to Peter Mandelson, Alan Milburn and John Hutton: stick to counting your money and stop stabbing Labour in the back. And I say to Ed Miliband: have the courage of your convictions and ignore these blasts from the past."
At the end of last year, Mr McCluskey was critical of another Blairite figure, Jim Murphy, the new Scottish Labour leader, whom the union chief said, ahead of the party's leadership election, was the "candidate of a reheated Blairism, which will be a sentence of political death for many Scottish Labour MPs and for the prospect of a Labour victory next May".
Today, Mr Miliband will today set out Labour's plan to help "Generation Rent", claiming under the party's proposals young Britons would be £2.5bn better off; an average of £624 each.
Labour's plan is to:
*ban rip-off letting agent fees for tenants;
*legislate for three-year tenancies, giving renters a security and peace of mind and
*end excessive rent rises by putting a ceiling on rent increases during the new three-year tenancies.
Mr Miliband will say: "Moving house is an expensive time anyway and there is no reason why Generation Rent should be ripped off by rules which don't apply to property owners. The first Queen's Speech of the next Labour government will set out legislation to ban letting agent fees charged to tenants. It will save Generation Rent £2.5 billion over the next parliament and it will save the typical renter £624."
Meantime, Ed Balls has announced a Labour government would fast-track legislation to establish an independent commission to drive through major infrastructure projects within months of coming to power.
The Shadow Chancellor set out a remit for the new body featuring 10 targets, including providing the infrastructure needed to deliver jobs, growth and rising living standards; making Britain "the most connected and open trading nation", the best place to do scientific research and the most advanced telecommunications economy in the world.
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