Ed Miliband: I want Conservative votes. That's how we win
The Labour leader targets centre ground in a public Q&A and insists his plans for Britain are not anti-business
Ed Miliband devoted the day after his setpiece speech to the Labour party conference to persuading business leaders that his new vision for the country was not anti-business.
The Labour leader appeared upbeat, brushing off suggestions that he was "Red Ed", and insisting that his was a pro-business agenda that placed him in the middle ground of British politics.
Speaking at the end of a Q&A with members of the public thought to be the first time a political party has opened its doors at an annual conference he put in a far more assured performance than in his speech the day before. Miliband said the innovation was reinventing politics, and twice overruled the attempts of his compere, the comedian Eddie Izzard, to end the event. His message was consistent as was the BBC, whose parliament feed failed during the event, after cutting out during Miliband's speech on Tuesday.
He was asked why he wasn't taking the party to the left. Some in the party are concerned that his theme of "something for something" meant benefits such as housing should be withheld from those who cannot prove the contribution they make to society.
He said: "Elections are won from the centre ground. And I think that's a good thing. I want Conservatives voting for us that's how we win elections."
He faced down criticism from one audience member that he should not have extended his responsibility theme to include those who are disabled. In particular, she felt he was too hard on incapacity benefit claimants. Miliband was given a rough ride by the woman, who claimed he was "reinforcing the destructive rhetoric" of the coalition government on welfare by referring to someone he met who was on sickness benefits and who could haveworked.
The Labour leader said: "He was somebody who had lost his job 10 years ago. I'm not questioning the fact that he genuin! ely had an ailment but I just say to you, the system didn't demand that he go back to work, the system wrote him off.
"The system said he had incapacity, he couldn't work for a bit and that's it.
"The problem is I met his next-door neighbours and they didn't actually refer to him, but they said: 'Our problem is we are working incredibly hard and we are worried we are paying for people who can't work.' "
Miliband admitted that he should have said in his keynote speech "you've got to defend people who are with disability, ill-health and say that they shouldn't be under attack". But he added: "I genuinely don't think that saying you are tough on abuse of the benefit system is a non-Labour thing to do. I think it is fundamentally a Labour thing to do."
Miliband rejected suggestions that drugs should be decriminalised, claiming such a move would send the wrong signal. He said: "I don't believe that the current solutions are great or working, but I don't believe that that would make it better. I just worry and I'm not saying the current situation is great I just worry that sending that signal about legalisation and decriminalisation would send the wrongsignal."
He added: "We are having a policy review. It's something we are definitely looking at."
Asked by a 17-year-old what reasons he could give for voting Labour, Miliband said he thought climate change was one of the most important issues facing young people. He said: "When I think about my kids, I can honestly say that they will be saying to me in 20 or 30 years' time I hope they won't be talking about the economic crisis they will be saying to me: 'Did you really get it on climate change? Dad, did you really get it, or did, when you were leader of the Labour party and hopefully prime minister did you just say it's a too difficult thing and it's too uncertain and all that?'
"Actually, one responsibility on the older generation is to hand the planet on to the next generation. I think there is a ! genuine threat to that."
He also ruled out introducing legislation to guarantee pension payouts, because people were living much longer.
He added: "The truth about it is that unless we take seriously the cost challenge of pensions then I don't think we are going to succeed."
He was asked by Margaret Pritchard, a local pensioner, about whether he could stop a German company taking over a new hospital in her area which she said the government planned to privatise.
Miliband said he was against the private takeover of hospitals, but supported PFI projects and the involvement of private healthcare businesses.
He added: "Let me draw a clear distinction here, because when we were in government we did use the private sector, and people won't like me saying this but I think we were right to use the private sector. The independent treatment centres make a big difference to cataract, hip operations and other things.
"But I really think the idea that an NHS hospital, that even if it is badly managed, can be taken over by other management. But I am not in favour though of just sending it out to the private sector. I don't think that reflects the values of the NHS."
Being told that some people found him "weird" seemed to set him off. "I think I'm a pretty normal guy. I don't give a damn about that," he said. "The times are too serious, the issues are too grave for us to say it's not about substance. I've got an old-fashioned view: substance wins out.
"I took a big risk in standing for the leadership, a personal risk in relation to my family, and a political risk. But I did it because I knew that this country needed a fundamental change, big change. It couldn't just be more of the same."
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