Miliband fears economy ‘will get worse not better’

The Labour leader said he was determined to “reward the many” but insisted that it would not be responsible to pledge to restore the 50p rate of income tax in 2015 until he knew the state of the nation’s finances.

“We’ll set out what we’re going to do at the next election,” he told BBC Breakfast a day after the UK narrowly avoided a triple-dip recession by registering 0.3 per cent growth in the last quarter.

“We do not know exactly what the state of the public finances are. It is going to get worse not better, it seems to be getting worse not better.”

“The responsible thing to do is to say what we would be doing now if we were in government and then to say, when it comes to the election, ‘Here’s our manifesto’.”

He later added: “Having rich people in this country who make a contribution is important.

“But part of the problem of the past has been the idea that that’s all we need to succeed. It is ordinary people in this country who are the forgotten wealth creators. That is what my Labour Party is about – rewarding them.”

In a round of interviews ahead of next week’s local elections, Mr Miliband accepted that he faced a battle with public “cynicism” about his chances of doing more to deal with the economic crisis than other parties.

He said his message to people intending to vote for Ukip (the UK Independence Party), was that leaving the European Union would be “a threat to jobs in this country”.

He also played down the significance of a meeting with Respect MP George Galloway – which prompted suggestions of a reconciliation with the former Labour firebrand – saying he found his views “awful”.

Mr Galloway said this week, when the meeting was revealed, that he wanted to see Mr Miliband become prime minister and suggested he would encourage Labour votes where there was no Respect candidate.

But Mr Miliband said the encounter was part of a bid to garner minority party votes over a single issue and that he would be fighting to get Mr Galloway ousted in 2015 from the seat he spectacularly snatched from his former party in a by-election last year.

“I think George Galloway’s views are awful,” he said. “He might want me to be prime minister but I don’t want him to be an MP.”

Mr Galloway, who has twice overturned Labour majorities to win Commons seats since being expelled in 2003, immediately hit back. The Bradford West MP posted on Twitter: “I realise now that I showed poor judgment in finally agreeing to meet Miliband.

“An unprincipled coward with the backbone of an amoeba.”

He went on: “Miliband’s claim that he repeatedly pursued me for a one-hour meeting about ‘boundary changes’ is, quite simply, a lie.”