Ed Miliband speech in Warrington

**CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY**

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party, in a speech a Labour Party rally in Warrington today, said:

It is great to be here in Warrington.

Let’s thank our brilliant supporters: Eddie Izzard, Ben Elton and Sally Lindsay.

And let’s thank the people so vital to forming a Labour government.

Two key seats we need to win.

Nick Bent from Warrington South.

Julia Tickridge from Weaver Vale.

And let’s re-elect Helen Jones in Warrington North.

It is now just 33 days from the closest election for a generation.

Just 33 days to vote out this Tory government.

Just 33 days to make Britain better than this and elect a Labour government.

And today I want to tell you how our great country can succeed.

Simple values.

Labour values.

British values.

Britain won’t succeed when millions struggle with low pay.

Britain will succeed when a Labour government ensures that the hard work of everyone in our country is rewarded.

Britain won’t succeed when working people face a tide of insecurity, with an epidemic of zero hours contracts.

Britain will succeed when a Labour government ends that epidemic and gives confidence and security to working people.

Britain won’t succeed when young people fear they will have a worse life than their parents.

Britain will succeed when a Labour government restores the Promise of Britain and gives hope back to our young people.

Britain won’t succeed when the vested interests – the banks, the energy companies - can rip people off and the government stands up for them.

Britain will succeed when a Labour government fights for you against the powerful forces that hold our country back.

Britain won’t succeed when our vital public services are hacked back to the bone.

Britain will succeed when a Labour government rescues our most precious institution of all, our National Health Service.

And the most important truth of all: Britain won’t succeed with the old idea that wealth trickles down from the top and everyone else is just left on their own.

Britain will succeed when a Labour government builds a country on the truth we know:

It is only when working people succeed that Britain succeeds.

That’s why we need a Labour government.

A better plan.

For a better future.

And we’ll never have that with these Tories.

What did David Cameron say on Thursday night: after five years he wants to finish the job.

Living standards plummeting.

Food banks soaring.

Tax credits cut.

VAT up.

The NHS creaking.

Class sizes rising.

Child poverty worsening.

Zero hours contracts exploding.

Tax avoidance given the green light.

And he wants to finish the job.

We won’t let this Tory government finish the job.

Our job is to finish off this Tory government.

No wonder the Prime Minister spent the whole debate on Thursday night trying to hide from his record.

Well he can try to hide from his record.

But he can’t run from it.

And what about their plans for the future?

He didn’t want to talk about those the other night?

His plans for double the cuts in public services next year.

His plans to raise VAT.

To put our health service at risk.

To give yet another tax cut to the millionaires.

To stand by while the tax dodgers and the tax avoiders continue to take us for a ride.

Working families can’t afford to take that risk.

Britain can’t afford to take that risk.

We know Britain can do better than this.

And our values run through each of the five pledges Labour are campaigning on across Britain.

Let me set those out for you today.

It starts with the economy.

Our first pledge is to build a strong economic foundation.

We will cut the deficit every year.

Balancing the books as soon as possible in the next Parliament.

We will make common sense spending reductions, but we will invest in health and education because they are about the strength of our society and the future of our economy.

We will not take risks with our public finances but we will never take risks with our public services either.

And we will have fair tax changes, reversing David Cameron’s millionaire’s tax cut.

Because we believe in the principle that those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden.

Our second pledge is higher living standards for working families.

An £8 minimum wage.

25 hours free childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds.

An energy price freeze so prices can only fall and cannot rise.

And an end to the exploitation of zero hours contracts.

What did the PM say on Thursday night?

“Never mind zero hours contracts.”

Because of what we believe: we do mind.

David Cameron and George Osborne said they couldn’t live on a zero hours contract.

I couldn’t either.

But the difference is I’m going to do something about it.

If a zero hours contract is not good enough for them, it isn’t good enough for the British people.

That’s why we will legislate to give workers a new right: if you work regular hours you will get a regular contract not a zero hours contract.

Our third pledge is focused on the bedrock of security for working families, our National Health Service.

We need to rescue the NHS from this Government and we will.

With 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more doctors, 5,000 more care workers and 3,000 more midwives.

Paid for not by extra borrowing, not by more taxes on ordinary families.

But by a mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million.

Money from the tobacco companies.

And by closing tax loopholes exploited by hedge funds that this Tory government will never stand up to.

Because they are the political wing of the hedge fund industry.

And we will do something else: we will reverse the tide of privatisation in our NHS.

The NHS will be our preferred provider.

We’ll stop profits being sucked out of the NHS with a new profits cap.

We will put patients before profits.

And we will repeal the privatising, destructive, never-should-have-been-allowed, shameful, promise-breaking, Health and Social Care Act. 

Our fourth pledge is on immigration.

We won’t cut ourselves off from the rest of the world.

But we need controls on immigration.

And those controls will have our values at their core.

We believe that people should contribute before they claim.

So people will have to wait for at least two years until they can claim benefits.

And we will call time on employers who don’t pay the minimum wage, gang-masters that exploit migrant labour, recruitment agencies that only advertise abroad.

Because this Labour Party has always stood against exploitation wherever we have found it and we always will.

Our fifth and final pledge is to our young people.

We simply can’t go on with young people fearing they will have a worse life than their parents.

So at every stage of life we will improve chances for the young.

Smaller class sizes for 5, 6, and 7-year-olds.

An apprenticeship for every school leaver who gets the grades.

And tuition fees reduced from £9000 to £6000.

And nowhere is the need for a fairer future for our young people clearer than when it comes to housing.

There’s nothing more British than the dream of home ownership.

Starting out in a place of your own.

But for so many young people today that dream is fading.

Home ownership is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

This government has presided over the lowest level of housebuilding since the 1920s.

There are now 11 million people who rent their homes, most of whom say they would like to buy.

There are almost three and a half million young adults living with their parents.

If we keep going as we are, the average house price will be 14 times the average wage by 2020.

No wonder people can’t get the start they need.

There’s no bigger symbol that our country doesn’t work for working people than young people not being able to get a start with a home of their own.

Our plan is the first real plan for housebuilding in a generation.

We will build at least 200,000 homes a year by the end of the Parliament.

We won’t let those large developers just hoard land.

Waiting for it to go up in value when it could be used to build homes.

We’ll say: either you use the land or you lose the land.

We will build a new generation of towns, garden cities and suburbs creating over half a million new homes.

We will make housing the top priority for additional capital investment.

And today I can announce the next step in our plan.

The next Labour government will create a new Future Homes Fund.

The banks will benefit from the taxpayer support we will provide to help people save for their first home.

In return, we will expect the banks to invest in homes for the next generation.

Unlocking £5 billion for 125,000 homes.

A Labour government will get Britain building again.

So these are our pledges.

This is our plan.

You know it is going to be a close election.

It’s going to come down to the wire.

It could be decided in the final days.

And in the end it is going to come down to you.

This election could come down to a few hundred votes.

In a few dozen seats.

Yesterday, I was in Morecambe.

By the Eric Morecambe statue.

And a Labour Party member said to me, “Will you win Morecambe for us?”

And my reply was, “I need you to win Morecambe for us.”

It is true in Morecambe.

It is true in Warrington South.

It is true in Weaver Vale.

So the 1,000 people here could change the course of this election.

Today therefore I am going to ask you a favour.

In the time we have got left between now and the election, I want each of you to knock on 500 doors in our key seats.

Some of you are doing that already.

And I want you to do something else.

I want you each to bring with you a friend to do the same.

And if you all did that?

That’s a million doors.

That could make the difference in this general election.

And that’s the way change has always happened.

Through people.

100 years ago, the trade unions joined together and campaigned for workers’ rights and they won.

70 years ago, the working people of our country joined together and campaigned for an NHS and they won.

40 years ago, working women joined together and campaigned to legislate for the principle of equal pay and they won.

20 years ago, the gay and lesbian community of our country joined together and campaigned for equality in law and they won.

And in all these movements and moments, when people asked who will fight this fight?

They didn’t wait.

They didn’t say it was up to someone else.

They said “call on me”.

Now all of us in these next 33 days must answer the call as they did.

And when people ask who will fight for the future of our country?

Say: call on me.

Call on me to restore hope for our young people.

Call on me to fight for our NHS.

Call on me to abolish the bedroom tax.

Call on me to honour to ensure dignity in retirement.

Call on me to fight for a more equal, more just, more fair Britain.

Call on me to build a Britain where working people succeed.

And Britain succeeds.

Call on me.

We know Britain can do better than this.

Today I call on you.

Let’s go out and build that future together.