Miliband's pledge for working people as Labour unveils manifesto

Ed Miliband pledged to lead a Britain that "works for working people" as he unveiled a manifesto including a pledge to accelerate increases to the minimum wage to take it beyond £8 an hour by 2019.

The manifesto represents a bold bid to reclaim public trust in Labour's ability to handle the economy five years after losing office in the aftermath of the financial crash.

The first page commits a new Labour government to a "budget responsibility lock", guaranteeing that every policy is fully costed and will not require any additional borrowing.

It also promises to freeze rail fares for a year, paid for by abandoning some road schemes - after the Tories said they would cap increases to inflation over the next five years.

Mr Miliband accused the Tories of being "the party of sums that do not add up and commitments that cannot be kept".

Urging voters to back a change after five years of "failed" coalition austerity, he said the manifesto "does not do what most manifestos do. It doesn't offer a list of promises ... a shopping list of proposals.

"Instead it seeks to answer the questions people are asking.

"This plan shows there is no trade-off between being disciplined and making a difference.

"The plan we lay before you is no less ambitious because we live in a time of scarcity.

"It is more ambitious because it starts from a clear commitment to balance the books and because it does not stop there.

"This is a plan to change our country. And it is a plan which shows Labour is not only the party of change but the party of responsibility too."

While the party has nudged ahead in recent voting intention opinion polls, it remains well adrift of the Conservatives on economic competence.

Despite the pledge of a "budget responsibility lock", unlike the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, who launch their manifestos later this week, Labour offers no timetable for clearing the deficit, saying only that it will get national debt falling and a surplus on the current budget "as soon as possible in the next parliament".

Mr Miliband said: "A clear vow to protect our nation's finances. A triple lock of responsibility.

"First, we are the only party at this election who can show how every policy in our manifesto will be paid for - no commitments requiring additional borrowing, not a single one.

"Second, our manifesto writes the first line of Labour's first budget: 'This Budget cuts the deficit every year'. That Budget will only be presented when it has been verified by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

"Third, the next Labour government will meet our fiscal rules, with the national debt falling and a surplus on the current budget."

The Labour leader said there was a "contrast" with the Tories, accusing them of throwing spending promises around "with absolutely no idea where the money is coming from".

He said: "That approach is bad for the nation's books, and you know nothing is more dangerous to our NHS than pretending you will be able to protect it without being able to say where the money is coming from.

"You can't fund the NHS with an IOU and the Conservative Party need to learn that lesson.

"The Tories are the party of sums that do not add up and commitments that will not be kept.

"We are a party that will keep our commitments and every promise we make is paid for. That is the difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party."

Mr Miliband said coalition policy had meant insecurity for millions as a "prescription for economic success" adding: "We have had five years of these ideas, we have had five years of this experiment.

"It has failed."

Mr Miliband said Labour would create a country in which everyone's voice is heard, rather than one where those with access and wealth have all the power.

The Labour leader said: "Today we tear up the old assumptions.

"Britain succeeds not when we only reward those with the six-figure bonuses but when we reward the hard work of every working person in our country.

"Britain succeeds not when our schools and hospitals are cut back to the bone but where we invest so they can strive to be the best in the world

"Britain succeeds not with communities that are fraying at the edges, but when we have communities where people share a common life.

"Britain succeeds not when those who have the access and the wealth have all the power, but when everyone's voice is heard.

"And Britain succeeds not when we turn in on ourselves but when we are strong and confident and look outward to the world.

"That is the kind of country we are, that's how Britain can do better than this."

Mr Miliband also outlined new plans to create a National Childcare Service to help guarantee wraparound childcare "for every working parent that wants it".

The minimum wage pledge goes beyond the party's previous promise to raise it to £8 an hour by the end of the next parliament in 2020 - which critics said it was already due to reach in any case.

Labour said it would mean an extra £800 a year for a full-time worker over and above Tory plans.

It said the £200 million cost of capping rail fares would be paid for by "delaying road projects on the A27 and A358, for which the economic case is still uncertain".

There would also be a strict cap on every route for future fare rises, and a new consumer right created to access the cheapest ticket.

The party promised to back up its proposed new legal right to guaranteed childcare in breakfast or after-school clubs from 8am-6pm with the creation of a National Primary Childcare Service.

Mr Miliband said he would make a pledge to working families, saying: "I make this promise to working families today as well - we will not raise National Insurance or VAT or the basic or higher rates of income tax.

"So my pledge for your family finances - an £8 minimum wage, exploitative zero-hours contracts banned, tax credits protected, childcare extended, no rise in VAT, National Insurance or the basic and higher rate of income tax, because this party is determined to raise the living standards of working people in our country."

Mr Miliband said "David Cameron's tax cut for millionaires" would be reversed while there would be a "crackdown on hedge funds who avoid paying their fair share", and Labour would stop "HMRC operating double standards" and "call tax havens to accounts".

He reiterated the policy to abolish the nom-dom rule.

Businesses should not be serving banks but banks should be serving business, Mr Miliband said.

After reiterating the plan to ensure energy bills fall and do not rise, he said: "Pro-business, not pro-business as usual."

Mr Miliband went on: "Here's the thing, you have to ask who do you want in power when it comes to these big decisions?

"When the knock at the door comes from the big six energy companies, when the banks send a message asking for a better deal for them, when the tax avoiders turn up demanding that the revenue turns the other way or when the phone call comes from Rupert Murdoch - who do you want in Downing Street?

"Who do you think will stand up to these powerful interests? Who do you want standing up for you?

"The answer will never be David Cameron because he is strong at standing up to the weak but always weak when it comes to standing up to the strong."

Mr Miliband drew parallels with past Labour prime ministers - including Tony Blair - who had "built the great institutions of our country" and "called time on the old way of doing things".

"I do not offer a government that tries to carry on from where the last Labour government left off. I will lead a government that seeks to solve the challenges of our time," he said.

And he insisted that after being "tested" for four years, he was ready for power.

"Ready to put an end to the tired old idea that as long as we look after the rich and powerful, we will all be OK," he said.

"Ready to put into practice the truth that it is only when working people succeed that Britain succeeds.

"If you elect me as your prime minister in just over three weeks' time, I will work for that goal. I will fight for that goal. Every single day. In everything I do. In every decision I make.

"I know Britain can be better."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the Labour manifesto was "not worth the paper it's written on".

He said: "The Labour Party saying they have no plans for additional borrowing is like an alcoholic who consumes a bottle of vodka every day, saying they have no plans to drink more vodka.

"It's a dangerous addiction and the Labour Party have no plan and no date by which to clear the decks, wipe the slate clean and deal with the deficit."

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said: "Labour has admitted today that if there is a Labour government there will be more cuts in Scotland.

"Ed Balls has said that, in direct contradiction to what Jim Murphy has been trying to say over the past week.

"I think that is the wrong choice. Yes, we need to get the deficit down, but we need to do that in a way and at a pace that allows us to invest in infrastructure, in skills and innovation, in things that get the economy growing.

"We need to invest in protecting our public services and we need to have policies that drive people out of poverty, not drive them deeper into poverty.

"There is a very clear choice at this election: you can have more austerity with Labour, the Tories or the Liberals, or you can have a clear alternative to austerity with the SNP."

Mr Miliband defended the decision not to provide a timetable for deficit reduction, saying the arbitrary targets set by Chancellor George Osborne had undermined his credibility.

The Labour leader said: "What we have learned from this Government is setting an arbitrary timetable wasn't the answer.

"There is nothing that undermines credibility more than setting an arbitrary date without an idea of meeting it and then failing to meet the date.

"George Osborne has done that many, many times during the course of this parliament because, of course, he was saying he's going to get rid of the deficit and he's failed to do so."

He said the Tories were making the Green Party look fiscally credible by committing to £20 billion of spending on the NHS, a rail fare freeze and tax cuts, without setting out where "a penny" of it will come from.

The Labour leader said: "The Conservative Party has got to account for why they are now the irresponsible party in British politics.

"No offence to the Green Party, they are making the Green Party look fiscally credible in the approach that they are taking."

In a question and answer session, Mr Miliband said of Labour's fiscal credibility: "Absolutely there's a challenge for us to show we're going to be fiscally credible and get the deficit down.

"I've been quite open about that and I'll tell you why - because I think there are a lot of people at home who are thinking to themselves 'I like Labour values, I like what Labour is putting forward in this election, I want to know it adds up'.

"And today the manifesto is proof of that. It's proof it does add up - that every penny, all the commitments we make, are paid for and costed."

Asked if Labour had given themselves about £18 billion wriggle room, Mr Miliband said: "I don't recognise the way you describe it."

Told the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) had said Labour's plans might have a "malign effect on the economy" and questioned how he would convince voters the party is fiscally credible, Mr Miliband replied: "People have to make their judgment.

"Let me characterise it this way - there are some parties in this election who are coming along and saying we don't need to make any difficult decisions, there needs to be no reductions in spending at all, it's all going to be easy. That's not the route we're taking.

"There are other parties - notably the Conservative Party, and I think Ukip as well, who seem to be supporting them - saying we've got to go even further than we've gone in this parliament, doubling the cuts next year and all of that.

"In the Conservative Party's case - I'm not so sure about Ukip - they're not only saying they'll make these extreme cuts but then they're also piling on £20 billion of unfunded commitments on top of it, which makes it completely the sums not adding up."

Mr Miliband said this mattered as it would affect family finances, adding that Labour were offering a "sensible, balanced plan".

Mr Miliband was told the IFS had said it would be coherent and would meet Chancellor George Osborne's Charter for Budget Responsibility to have "zero billion of cuts" from 2016.

Asked if he would rule it out, Mr Miliband replied: "Yes. We've said very clearly there are going to have to be reductions in unprotected areas and we couldn't have been plainer about that."

On which policies in the manifesto would not have appeared in Labour's 1997 general election pledges, Mr Miliband joked: "You could have asked me a better question, which is which of the policies wouldn't have been in the 2010 manifesto, which I wrote. Fortunately, you didn't ask that, so I'm not going to answer it."

Mr Miliband added: "I'm not offering to carry on from where the last Labour government left off, partly because circumstances have changed."

He said lessons had been learnt from the financial crisis, including on regulation, adding there was also a sense there were different rules for different groups of people.

Mr Miliband said he believes he is holding vested interests to account.

The Labour leader said: "We are living in a world which is a very different world to the world Tony Blair and Gordon Brown inherited.

"I'm doing something Tony Blair and Gordon Brown certainly didn't do in 1997 because I'm going into the election saying there are going to have be reductions on spending outside key protected areas."

Mr Miliband said his political project is "not the same as New Labour's political project, in part because the challenges are different".

Asked if a Labour government would stop Tory plans to increase the 40% income tax threshold to £50,000, Mr Miliband said: "We want to reduce the number of people paying the 40p tax rate, absolutely we do, and we want to raise the threshold but here is the big choice you face at the election... which is every promise we make is a promise we can pay for - and it is what the British people expect."