HAVE YOUR SAY: Miliband 'not playing class card' (From Bournemouth Echo)

HAVE YOUR SAY: Miliband 'not playing class card'

10:00am Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News

Labour leader Ed Miliband delivers his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester

Labour leader Ed Miliband has denied he was trying to play the class card by highlighting his education at a north London comprehensive.

Mr Miliband's references to his time at Haverstock School in his keynote speech to Labour's annual conference in Manchester, and in a party political broadcast on Wednesday evening, have drawn comparisons with the background of Eton-educated David Cameron and one Conservative MP has accused the Labour leader of using "class warfare" tactics.

But Mr Miliband said that, as someone who was seeking to become Prime Minister, he felt he should explain to voters where he came from and what experiences formed his political beliefs.

Speaking after his no-notes speech in Manchester, in which he claimed for Labour the mantle of the "One Nation party", Mr Miliband told ITV1's Daybreak: "It's not to do with a class act. It is much more to do with trying to explain who I am. People have been saying to me, 'as somebody who wants to be prime minister, we need to know more about you and what makes you tick'."

Mr Miliband said he was "flattered" to have his performance compared to Tony Blair, adding: "Tony Blair gave incredible conference speeches."

He brushed off opinion polls taken ahead of his speech which suggested only one in five voters saw him as a potential prime minister: "If you start looking at the polls as a leader, that's not the thing to do. Do what's right for the country, say what you think is right for the country. I think what people heard yesterday is how I want to change the country. Goodness knows, people are less interested in the polls and more interested in what's happening to their family finances."

Mr Miliband said he wanted to spell out how a Labour administration under his leadership would differ from Labour governments of the past.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I think we do need a new approach for the future. Old Labour wasn't careful with public money. Old Labour was for one sectional interest in society. I think New Labour was too timid about the responsibilities of those at the top and too silent about vested interests like banks.

"One Nation Labour is about saying we want responsibility from all, including those at the top. We can't shrink from taking on the vested interests like banks and energy companies, which actually the last Labour government didn't do sufficiently. I think it is a different approach."

Mr Miliband said he did not object to people becoming millionaires by their own efforts, as long as they pay their taxes. But he drew a distinction between people who get rich as entrepreneurs or as bankers.