The leader of Britain's main opposition Labour party, Ed Miliband, stated his intention on Tuesday to "rebuild Britain as one nation" as he sought to raise his own personal profile. The "one nation" slogan is traditionally used by Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party but was employed in the speech to the centre-left party's conference to show Labour would help Britain through hard times.
The hour-long speech was light on policy but full of detail about the background of Miliband, who surprised many by winning the leadership contest against his brother, former foreign minister David Miliband, two years ago. Observers said it was a brazen attempt to take back the centre ground that Cameron has tried to occupy. Miliband, who walked around the stage and delivered the speech without notes, sought to court Conservative voters, saying he could understand why they had turned away from the then Labour government and voted for Cameron in 2010.
But Miliband said the coalition government of the Conservatives and their junior partners, the Liberal Democrats, had let the country down and failed to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. "When David Cameron says to you 'Let's just carry on as we are and wait for something to turn up', don't believe him, don't believe him. If the medicine isn't working, change the medicine.
"And I tell you what else to change - change the doctor too, and that is what this country needs to do," Miliband said to loud applause. Miliband also teased Cameron for his closeness to a key former Rupert Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks, who has been charged with phone-hacking offences.
He said Britain could not move forward if it remained "two nations, not one, the bankers and the rest of the country". "We must have a one-nation banking system as part of a one-nation economy," he said. In a lengthy personal passage of the speech, Miliband contrasted his own education at a state school in London with that of Cameron, who was educated at the elite fee-paying Eton College. Polls show that while Labour are ahead of the Conservatives with more than two years to go until the next general election in 2015, Miliband himself does not enjoy high personal popularity.
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