Labour Conference in Liverpool: Ed Miliband in exclusive Liverpool Daily Post interview
Source: Liverpool Daily Post
A generation ago it would have been unthinkable for the Labour party to host its conference in Liverpool, Ed Miliband admitted on the eve of the party's annual gathering.
“I remember as a 15-16-year-old Neil Kinnock making that speech in 1985 about Liverpool council,” said the Labour leader in an exclusive interview with the Daily Post ahead of the party's conference in the city.
In that famous speech Lord Kinnock hit out at the way a Labour council was “playing politics with people’s jobs” in its fight against Margaret Thatcher’s government.
“The idea that a Labour leader would have wanted to come to Liverpool to support its council and the job it was doing, I think you would have given money against it.
“It is a sign of the way Liverpool has been transformed that we are here.
“I am proud to be here. I am proud of our relationship with this city and I am proud of the council.”
But Miliband, a year into his Labour leadership, does not think the job of turning around Liverpool’s fortunes is complete.
And he believes the coalition government is sending the city into reverse.
He said a Labour government would decentralise from London to big cities like Liverpool.
“We are far too centralised a country.
“We are far too centralised around London. It’s a massive problem for Britain.
“Look at all the European countries that succeed and they have lots of centres of power and influence.
“I want more powers for local authorities that do the right thing.
“You have got to build up other areas of the county, other centres of power. I actually think in a way the job is half done.
“If you compare to where Liverpool was 25 years ago, my sense is there is a real transformation.
“But there is further to go. There is definitely further to go and the public sector has got to play its part in it.
“I think one of the tragedies under this government is that some of the support there was, regional development agencies to build up our regions and cities outside London, has gone.”
He talks of investing in infrastructure but will not make promises on big ticket items like the stalled £400m-plus Merseytram project.
One of his themes for the conference is the future direction of Britain.
He said: “I come to this conference very optimistic about Britain but pessimistic about where this government is taking us.
“Britain has huge promise, huge potential. But we have got to fulfil it. That’s what’s frustrating at the moment under this government and I get a sense of people having a real sense of fear.
“We have got to be the people that try to offer them hope, and that’s what I am going to try and do this week.”
Liverpool, in common with other major cities, suffered rioting last month – some believe as a result of a lack of hope in young people’s lives.
Miliband does not blame the government for the riots but thinks the country needs to offer more opportunities to young people.
Did the Labour government do enough in its 13 years in power when it lavished money on social programmes?
“I think we did create better opportunities for young people. But I think there are deep issues we have got to address as a society.
“One is about people showing responsibility, because that it is important and frankly I think people at the top have not been showing responsibility, from the banks to MPs’ expenses to phone hacking, all of that has not set a good example.
“And there is also the opportunity side. I was very careful at the time of the riots not to say it’s all the fault of the government because of the cuts because I think it’s too simplistic to say that.
“Having said that you don’t excuse what happened but you have got to give opportunity and hope to young people.”
That mindset saw him promise to cap university tuition fees at £6,000, a third less than the new £9,000 limit – in a bid to ease the debt burden on students.
Britain is a country where the vast majority of people are decent and hard working he believes – another of his conference themes.
“The theme of my conference speech is going to be ‘how do we change our country so it reflects better the values of decent people in our country?’”
Then Miliband will have been shocked by the footage last week of two young boys cage fighting in a pub in Preston for the entertainment of adults?
“I haven’t actually seen it sorry. I have been writing my conference speech. It sounds terrible.”
He says parents have to show responsibility.
“You have actually got to help parents to be better parents.
“There are no magic wand solutions to that.
“You have got to crack down on parents who are bad parents and then you have got show young people that there is a different way forward."
His way forward for the country is a VAT cut, a bank bonus tax and keeping the 50p tax rate.
“The priority now is not to cut tax rates for people earning £3,000 a week. That’s not the right choice.
“You have got to change the culture of your society and the way your economy works because I actually think people are decent and you have got to give them the right opportunities.”
To read the Liverpool Daily Post's Live blog from the Labour Party Conference click here.
[Image: Labour Leader Ed Miliband]
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