Ed Miliband has confronted the growing concerns about his leadership qualities, defending himself against the charge that he has allowed a policy vacuum to develop within Labour.
Ahead of David Cameron setting out plans to curb executive pay this weekend, he has also ridiculed the idea that the prime minister can match his determination to forge a new kind of responsible capitalism in Britain.
In a Guardian interview, Miliband said: "If one of the big battlegrounds of British politics is going to be who is really going to take action on executive pay, I say 'bring it on'. I promise you they are not going to steal a march on us in this area.
"Does anyone really believe that David Cameron came into politics to create a more responsible capitalism? The public are not going to buy it."
He defended himself against the charge that he lacks the decisive qualities to lead the party from opposition into government in one term. "These are the hard yards of opposition. We have taken the hard road, not the line of least resistance. I think it is a fight. I always knew it was going to be a fight. It is one I relish – I never expected it to be anything else."
The comments follow claims by an exasperated former policy adviser, Lord Glasman, in the New Statesman this week that Miliband has appeared to exhibit "no strategy, no narrative and little energy". Glasman said: "We have not won, and show no signs of winning, the economic argument."
"Look, I am the guy who took on Murdoch," Miliband said on Friday. "That was a decisive thing to do. I am the guy that has said the rules of capitalism as played in the last 30 years have got to change. What is the most important thing for a leader of the opposition to have? It is to establish an argument about what is wrong with the country and what needs to change. I have a very clear plan and I have set out very clear themes."
Miliband is due to make announcements next week on how the party will adjust to the reality that a fair society can no longer be created simply by redistributing the proceeds of growth, the model that worked for previous Labour governments. He said: "That used to be the terms of trade. That is what Blair and Brown did between 1997 and 2010 – new schools, new hospitals, tax credits – that is not going to be available to the next Labour government. The Blair-Brown route is not available to us. Social democrats are facing problems with this all round the world: difficult times don't automatically mean social democracy wins."
He also rejected suggestions that he was in denial about the deficit, saying the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, "is the guy that invented the spending freeze 1997-98".
He praised the shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, for setting out how the party could make £5bn in defence cuts, saying other shadow cabinet members had made similar pledges and he wanted more to follow Murphy's lead.
Murphy warned this week that populism on spending cuts would not lead to popularity. Praising the detail in Murphy's plans, Miliband said: "It is exactly what Ed Balls said he wanted shadow ministers to do – to show that we do not oppose all the cuts. There are lots of cuts we are not going to be able to reverse. That is the way it is. To say otherwise would not be credible."
But he rejected suggestions he should set out new fiscal rules now in an attempt to bolster the party's trust ratings. "This process of restoring Labour's economic reputation and winning the economic argument takes time. It is an incredibly important task, not something that takes place in six months or a year. We – Ed and I – get this more than anyone, that this is an important task for Labour." Miliband also insisted he would challenge Cameron and Vince Cable repeatedly on the terrain of "responsible capitalism". He said: "On energy bills, rising train fares and banks, this government talks a good game sometimes but only ever fiddles at the margins.
"My test for him on executive pay is whether he would do what Labour would do if we were in office now: put an employee representative on every remuneration committee, make firms publish their pay ratios, empower pension companies and investors, and have another year of the bank bonus tax to get some of our young people back to work.
"There can't be any more foot-dragging and backsliding. If David Cameron wants a more responsible capitalism – responsibility at the top and the bottom – then this would be a start."
Comments
6 January 2012 8:37PM
He's still alive !
6 January 2012 8:38PM
Don't turn your back on him !
6 January 2012 8:38PM
Not for long...
6 January 2012 8:39PM
He's still alive !
How can you tell? He talks like a pre-programmed political GPS box.
6 January 2012 8:39PM
Can I have a D for dunce please Dave...RIP Bob love Blackbusters.
6 January 2012 8:40PM
New Old Labour's Michael Foot.
6 January 2012 8:40PM
But still not saying much
6 January 2012 8:40PM
What were you thinking when you decided to tweet on Bob Holness's passing? The public want politicians with grit and judgement.
6 January 2012 8:41PM
New Old Labour's Michael Foot.
Foot would have eaten him for breakfast
6 January 2012 8:41PM
Cracking tea Grommit!
6 January 2012 8:42PM
I think Ed is brilliant.
He has a really nice job.
No one is going to ask for his advice on anything.
More tea?
6 January 2012 8:43PM
We also need moves to openness on Tax Payments. It can't be right that the only way we can find out about Tax Fraud is using the Freedom of Information Act. If people and Companies are paying their Fair Share what have they got to fear from Disclosure?
6 January 2012 8:44PM
at this stage I prefer vacuous to smug, smarmy or patronising. Go Ed!
Free Tibet while you're at it will ya?
6 January 2012 8:44PM
Come on Ed - go for the jugular!
You've already bested Cameron and his cohorts in parliament; now do it in public.
Give us some real ideas, some real policies, some real hope.
Then we might believe in you.
(oh, and ignore the right-wing media; they are not your friends)
6 January 2012 8:46PM
It's not the policies. It's you, Ed. The voters don't want you in No. 10. And that's an insurmountable problem for the Labour Party.
6 January 2012 8:48PM
He speaks and nothing useful ever seems to come out. No wonder his personal ratings are so pathetic. He is just seen as irrelevant.
6 January 2012 8:49PM
Which bank obeying puppet is it anyway?
6 January 2012 8:49PM
Please stop. Please. Not every kind of damage is reversible and you're condemning the party to at least a decade of useless opposition. After two weeks of the worst press imaginable this is your idea of a fight-back? Tom Watson took on Murdoch, you just rode his coattails. Your big speech about changing the rules of capitalism was derided as the worst political address in decades. How can you hold up these pitiful, miserable scraps of achievement (if you really do believe they're worthy of that label) and expect anyone to see you as a real leader?
A mini interview in a paper read by the converted choir. That's your idea of defending yourself on a day carrying these sort of headlines? The party should heed the words of Lord Falconer and end the suffering.
6 January 2012 8:50PM
Special Ed isn't a caring capitalist either, since there's no such thing.
6 January 2012 8:50PM
t's not the policies. It's you, Ed. The voters don't want you in No. 10. And that's an insurmountable problem for the Labour Party.
I don't want Cameron in number 10, but he's there. For the time being.
6 January 2012 8:51PM
He forgot to blame everything on benefit scroungers.
6 January 2012 8:51PM
Hopefully It's all part of the plan, waiting for the late delivery, timing it right for the election. Early leads in the polls are never sustained.
6 January 2012 8:52PM
Oh it's that nasal 6th former. Well, he seems amused.
6 January 2012 8:52PM
Give him a break. He doing the best he can.
6 January 2012 8:52PM
Surely at least some of it is Labour's policies as well as Ed. They are the tax & spend policies of bankruptcy after all & they still haven't really shouldered their part from the debacle of their last years in power. Until then they'll continue to sink in the polls, even more so when the economy begins to pick-up.
6 January 2012 8:52PM
Far, far, far too late. Stuff that should have been said before you were even considered for leader.
"Look, I am the guy who took on Murdoch,"
the coward who took a tiny kick when it was clear that the crowds around would not notice and that he wasn't getting up again. oh, and who then ran off, to be lost in the crowd.
6 January 2012 8:53PM
Took on Murdoch! Twat. It was the Guardian wot dunnit. For god's sake go.
6 January 2012 8:54PM
Not only is he still about but he and his party are back in the lead according to opinion polls.
6 January 2012 8:55PM
The only issue left to decide is whether or not it's going to cost another five years of Osbornomia before Milliband makes way for someone who can beat the tories.
6 January 2012 8:56PM
Unfortunately Ed, despite your bluster, the public no longer trust The Labour Party and hence you'll be out of power for a generation.
It's only on the pages of The Guardian where Labour still maintains a speckle of credibility. Everyone else can see the facts-
13 years of mass immigration no asked for nor wanted
An economy that is one if not the (I'm not certain on the figures) most indebted in the western world
An education system that no longer educates
Two wars that reduced Britain's standing in the world to historic lows
Etc. Etc.
May The Labour Party in its current form never grace the halls of Downing Street again!
6 January 2012 8:56PM
Likening Ed Miliband to the film star Wallace is simply juvenile and cruel. I'm horrified!
Wallace was animated, amusing, inventive and had a clear grasp of life's essentials.
Unlike dead Ed...
6 January 2012 8:57PM
Well, I bet that's got the capitalists quaking in their boots!
Pathetic, vacuous, and above all, gutless.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
Ed, play the scapegoat just piss off into the desert, and give bro the baton.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
why are they ahead in the opinion polls then ?.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
I bet he isn't even drinking tea in that photo. Probably some brandy or whiskey in that mug, all smiles for good measure.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
He's by no means the return of the left-wing, but he's certainly a bridge away from the tragedy of New Labour. Come 2015 and Labour will return, hopefully under a red banner and not another centrist party like the US Democrats, who are actually more akin to the Tories.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
"Look, I am the guy who took on Murdoch," Miliband said on Friday.
On what planet? Labour has always been just as much Murdoch's whore as have the Tory party.
At least we know he has a sense of humour. That's a start.. perhaps.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
1. Back the trade unions.
2. Oppose austerity and the cuts.
3. Start saying what you think, not what you think people want to hear.
4. Get rid of the Blairites from your Cabinet.
5. Ignore what the media says about you.
We need an opposition. Man up, Ed.
6 January 2012 8:58PM
Guy?
Guy ?!
Guy ?!?!?!?!
Ed, please don't think of yourself as a 'guy' - it's just too 'Friends'.
6 January 2012 8:59PM
As probably the first non tory or troll on here I'm pleased to see that Ed is still fighting for a better Britain than the one we're going to have under Cameron, and hope that someone will actually listen to him instead of making stupid and malicious remarks.
6 January 2012 8:59PM
Amen to that.
6 January 2012 8:59PM
Forget Miliband, look at the average polls
Cons 39
Lab 38
Libs 11 which is hilarious as they were on 25% in May 2010.
The YouGov Sun poll on 4th Jan, was even better for Labour.
Cons 38
Lab 42
Libs 10
Miliband is clearly not doing Labour as much harm as some of the disaffected ex Labour ministers think.
And the idiotic Cameron - he who thought that leaving the EU would not have to be a U-Turn policy in the life of this parliament. If anyone heard the analysis on Radio 4 this morning, it was hilarious to hear how wrong he was, and watch how the Tories lose the UKIP vote as he has to re-engage with Europe before the next General Election.
6 January 2012 8:59PM
Labour can never win with loser Ed...worst leader ever, change now or next election 5 more years of Cam/Clegg or just Cam!
6 January 2012 8:59PM
Jesus.
He's actually calling time on social democracy. If we needed any more evidence that this guy is a banking plank and a Tory stooge this is it.
Get rid of him.
6 January 2012 9:01PM
Does Ed have what is needed to provide a real opposition ?
Nice guy - but we need radical policies and a dynamic personality to show the electorate that Labour can offer a viable alternative to the condems.
Time to look for a new leader before it's too late.
6 January 2012 9:01PM
This is great news for the Tories and the British people. Miliband and Balls are fighting on ! This will guarantee a Tory landslide in 2015. With another pair, the Tories get a majority; with them we get a landslide and another five years of responsible, reasonable, sensible government. With luck the Labour Party will never get back into power again.
Hasn't he sacked Diane Abbott yet ?
Are you all racists in the Labour Party now ?
6 January 2012 9:02PM
r.i.p. labour, then.
6 January 2012 9:03PM
He needs to stop listening to the kind of timorous, bland, populism beloved of the spinners.
If you're going down - go down speaking your own mind. You'll regret it less.
Still, rather him than David (what are you clapping for, you voted fot it) Miliband.
6 January 2012 9:06PM
Take the fight to those Tories and their Lib-Dem enablers - there's plenty of ammo: the dismantling of the NHS, Education fees, Bankers bonuses, big business tax avoidance, the disabled, the elderly, housing etc or are you gonna still sit on the fence to see which way the winds are blowing?
Btw, it's a bit disingenious disparaging Michael Foot - he was an intellectual which, is not a label you can call Cameron the shallow, insincere, PR Snakeskin oil salesman.
6 January 2012 9:06PM
He might as well just go for it and have a left wing agenda. The public won't be so thrilled with the coalition when unemployment goes through the roof. Tory lite just isn't going to register on the disillusioned public.