Miliband pledges a ‘better way forward’

The party leader said the idea that wealth from a “few at the top” would “magically trickle down to everybody else” was not working.

Speaking on a visit to defence firm BAE Systems in East Lancashire, Mr Miliband said: “I think, like lots of parts of our country have found, that while Government ministers go on the news and say there is a recovery going on and everything is great, people think ‘well hang on, the recovery has not reached my door’. And that is what we have got to change and that is about how you think the country succeeds. I think a country succeeds only where every person in it succeeds. This Government thinks you succeed when a few people at the top do well and the wealth will trickle down magically to everybody else. Well it doesn’t work. That is why we have got to make some changes, like raising the minimum wage and dealing with the problem of zero hour contracts. Like giving opportunities to our young people - every young person deserves an opportunity either to go to university or to get a decent apprenticeship.”