Purchase today

Enter your email address here to receive updates from the team.

Jobs

User login

The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

RSS

Labour should be "reformers of the state", says Miliband

In his first major interview since becoming Labour leader, Ed Miliband promises "profound" reform to

By Samira Shackle Published 22 November 2010 10:15

Nearly two months after becoming Labour leader, Ed Miliband has given his first major interview to the Guardian.

In it, he promises to launch the "long, hard road" back to power with profound change to the Labour Party and a focus on inequality. A commission on party organisation will be launched this weekend, examining the role of the unions and the rules under which he was elected leader. Amid stories of in-fighting and apparent public disagreement from the shadow chancellor Alan Johnson over university funding and the top rate of tax, Miliband responds to the criticism that he has been too inactive since becoming leader, and reaffirms his support for the 50p tax rate.

On the slow start

It's about digging in, and it's not about short-term fixes, nor shortcuts to success. There is a long, hard road for us to travel.

On the deficit

I don't agree with what the Tories say about us overspending. They are on a mission and we know what their mission is and we have got to take them on. Their mission is to say 'This deficit is not the result of an international banking crisis, it is the result of a crisis in government'.

On the 50p tax rate

[Asked if the 50p rate was simply necessary to cut the deficit] No, it's about statement about values and fairness and about the kind of society you believe in and it's important to me.

One of the things that gets me out of bed in the morning and that I care about is that Britain is a fundamentally unequal society and that's the reason I said what I said about the 50p rate.

On the role of the state

I think it's very clear that as we are reformers of the market -- we should also need to be reformers of the state. I don't consider myself a sort of statist. The top-down idea of the state is as much of a problem as an idealised view of the market and in a way they have their similarities. Both treat people not as people but as kind of objects.

On reforming Labour

I am talking about change as profound as the change New Labour brought because the world itself has changed massively, and we did not really change fundamentally as a party, or come to terms with the changes, and have not done so since 1994.

Tags: Ed Miliband Labour

More from Samira Shackle

View the discussion thread.

10 comments

Mon, 2010-11-22 10:28 — Reginald-Fah-fah

'Steady Eddie' needs more than a reform to save his career!

Mon, 2010-11-22 10:45 — swatantra

What Labour hs to do next is come up with some really radical policies like State funding of political Parties, like the abolition of the monarchy and like re nationalisation of Rail. Judging by the public mood the time is right for all 3 measures. We must also have an elected Chair of the Party by OMOV which means diluting the undue influence of the Unions. And Labour must embrace the co-operative and mutual models of governance and business otherwise it is not going anywhere. A big step for Labour would be a move away from an acceptance of the welfare dependancy culture into a can do culture.

Mon, 2010-11-22 10:46 — writeoff (not verified)

I was just thinking what a reformer he is when they signed off some more Lords.

Mon, 2010-11-22 10:52 — Benedict (not verified)

writeoff, Do you think Labour should refuse to appoint people to the Lords while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats carry on doing so?

Mon, 2010-11-22 11:38 — Tessa (not verified)

Labour should quite categorically repudiate the neoliberal economic paradigm which has resulted in gross inequality in most countries where it has been pursued. It should look to the analysis of Stiglitz and Ha Joon Chang(from Cambridge University) for what needs to be done. If leading members are to tour the country they need to be able to explain simply what this disastrous paradigm has meant for ordinary people - inequality, job insecurity,a reduced share of national income for wages and salaries so that debt has to be incurred to maintain a standard of living. This cannot continue - we must endeavour to tax more fairly - look to the Tax Justice Campaign and work towards a just society.

Mon, 2010-11-22 11:44 — CrISpY DuCk

There has never been a better chance to get across the message about values and fairness and about the kind of society we believe in,so for me Ed Miliband has came along at just the right time.He can only fail in his appeal for the introduction of common decency if he doesn't manage to persuade the majority of the British people that the policies of greed and self interest are not working and it doesn't take a genius to work out that the most greedy and self interested have had to be bailed out by the rest of us at no real cost to the greedy and self interested themselves.Indeed the greedy and self interested (Philip Green)are playing an active roll in advising the government on the best methods of making the rest of us pay.

"Conference next year is about us saying 'we've gone out there and talked to people and they've told us what they think of their lives and politics and politicians'"

I liked this bit.It's long overdue.

Mon, 2010-11-22 12:49 — bonk (not verified)

I'm not convinced but at least he's said something,anything at this point he has been mr invisible regardless of fatherhood while the government has run rampant.

I'll say it again we have to wait and see but he needed to hit the ground running,didn't and has stumbled along since his election it doesn't inspire confidence in me i'm sad to say.

Mon, 2010-11-22 12:57 — frenetic

'swat and New Ed,

Once upon a time 'welfare dependency' was a construct of the US libertarian right such as Charles Murray, it speaks volumes about the current NL party that it is now common currency amongst many of its members/adherents.

Unemployment,etc is and should be seen as a structural failing of the economy, not a personal failing.

New generation, new labour?

Mon, 2010-11-22 15:46 — CrISpY DuCk

bonk I see it as classic tortoise and hare stuff.The red tops were waiting for him to hit the ground running so they could run a million and one Red Ed headlines and Ed knew it.He's not quite the bogey man the right wing media were whipping themselves if not the nation into a fury about.By the time Osborne's finished perhaps the nation will see through the smear campaign and be willing to give Ed and common decency a chance.I expect that's what he means by "There is a long, hard road for us to travel."