Miliband begins repair job for shattered party

MANCHESTER - Ed Miliband was today to list Labour's mistakes during its 13 years in power and promise not to repeat the arrogance and hubris of former Prime Minisster Gordon Brown's boast that he had abolished "boom and bust".

In his first keynote speech to the Labour Party conference as its leader he planned to distance himself from Brown, for whom he worked as an adviser for 10 years before becoming an MP, in an attempt to draw a line under the Blair-Brown era.

He was to admit that New Labour was wrong to allow "light-touch" regulation of the City of London and to let people build up huge levels of debt.

"The new generation is different - different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics," Miliband was to tell the conference.

In a personal speech, he was to outline how his core values and beliefs were shaped by his parents' experience as refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe.

Three days after his victory over his elder brother, David, in the leadership election, Miliband was to try to heal the party's wounds and reassure Blairites by promising to keep Labour in the centre ground.

However, some Blairites are furious he has pronounced the New Labour era over, believing that sends a wrong signal to middle-class voters who have deserted the party. "It's a recipe for staying in the political wilderness," one shadow minister said yesterday.

Blairites are urging the new leader to show he is not a prisoner of the trade unions, who secured his narrow victory. They want him to reform the way the Labour leader is chosen, with one option being to abolish the union section of the electoral college. At the moment the electoral college is made up one-third of MPs, one-third of party members and one-third of affiliated unions' members.

Some Blairites want Miliband to make Labour less dependent on funding from the unions, who contribute more than 90 per cent of its income. Unions could be covered by a cap on donations agreed with other parties under a plan to "take big money" out of politics and reward parties that attract small donations with matching pound-for-pound support from taxpayers.

In his address, Miliband will try to launch Labour's fightback following its May election defeat by showing humility about the mistakes which led the party to lose voters' trust.

His message to them will be: "When you saw the worst financial crisis in a generation, I understand your anger that Labour hadn't stood up to the old ways in the City which said deregulation was the answer.

"When you wanted to make it possible for your kids to get on in life, I understand why you felt that we were stuck in the old thinking about higher and higher levels of personal debt, including tuition fees. And when you saw jobs disappear and economic security undermined, I understand your anger at a Labour government that claimed it could end boom and bust."

Although Miliband will stop short of a formal apology, his words mark a significant departure from Labour's previous attempts to blame the recession on the global crisis.

Opinion polls show the voters believe Labour is at least partly responsible and Miliband judges he must address that before the party can regain credibility on the economy.

- INDEPENDENT