Labour candidate Ed Miliband visits town (From Warrington Guardian)

Labour candidate Ed Miliband visits town

12:23pm Monday 23rd August 2010 in Where I Live

LABOUR leadership candidate Ed Miliband visited Glazebury Methodist Church last week to ‘learn from and listen to’ voters during a tour of the north west.

The former secretary of state for energy and climate change said it was important for him to talk to ‘as many people as possible’ during his visit to Warrington to learn from the mistakes of the previous government.

Mr Miliband said: “We lost the general election and need to learn lessons from that.

“It’s hard to know what the result of the leadership race will be but win or lose we need to come together as a party and send out a clear message we are willing to change.”

Ed, the brother of fellow leadership candidate David Miliband, said he wanted to see the minimum wage changed to a living wage of more than £7 an hour and replace tuition fees with a graduate tax so ‘bankers pay back more than social workers’.

He added: “We need to be clear about our values and tell working people we are on their side and deserve their vote.

“We asked ourselves hard questions about why we lost voters in the last election and making society more equal is very important to me. “The responsibilty to work is important for us to emphasise so that people who work all the hours God sends know that people who aren’t working genuinely can’t.”

Mr Miliband was critical of the coalition govenment after six schools in Warrington were affected by cuts in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding.

He said: “I’m reading in newspapers everyday that the coalition are doing something wrong and people are fearful of what will be cut next.

“Cutting the BSF funding is a terrible thing for our kids and the construction industry.

“Making cuts in the public sector is such a mistake.”

“Conservatives did not have a great result, it’s a less Conservative country than we feared.

“We need to have confidence about what we can do.”