Miliband attacks ‘fast buck’ UK

27 September 2011 Last updated at 05:14 ET

By Brian Wheeler Political reporter, BBC News, in Liverpool

Labour leader Ed Miliband will address delegates in his biggest speech since being elected leader

Ed Miliband will later declare war on “predatory, asset-stripping” companies and anti-social tenants, in a speech to Labour’s annual conference.

The Labour leader will set out his vision of a country where responsible “grafters” are rewarded.

And he will call for an end to the “fast buck” culture he claims has created a “quiet crisis” in the UK.

It is Mr Miliband’s biggest speech since becoming Labour leader just over a year ago.

And although it contains no new policy announcements, he will be hoping to seize back the political initiative amid falling opinion poll ratings.

‘Responsibility’

Among the ideas Mr Miliband will talk about are tax incentives for companies that make a contribution to the economy through training and long-term investment.

He will draw a distinction between genuine wealth creators like Rolls Royce – which, he will say, should be championed and encouraged – and “asset-stripping predators” such as Southern Cross care homes.

He will also float the idea – already being piloted by two Labour councils, Manchester and Newham in London – that people who make a contribution to the local community will be allowed to jump housing queues.

“When we have a housing shortage, choices have to be made,” he will say. “Do we treat the person who contributes to their community the same as the person who doesn’t? My answer is no. Our first duty should be to help the person who shows responsibility.”

Mr Miliband will argue for a “something-for-something” culture in schools and call for a new effort to get children from poor backgrounds to university.

The Labour leader has been criticised this week by union leaders who are angry at his failure to back their planned “day of action” on 30 November over cuts to their members’ pensions.

He also faced criticism from some of his own MPs, including ex-minister Tessa Jowell, that voters are not listening to the party.

A ComRes poll in the Independent on Tuesday showed 37% of the 1,000 voters questioned said they backed the Conservatives, against 36% for Labour and 12% for the Liberal Democrats.

Just 24% agreed that Mr Miliband was a credible prime minister-in-waiting, against 57% who said he was not.

‘Quiet crisis’

But Mr Miliband believes that in the wake of the banking crisis and the summer riots, voters are crying out for a new kind of society in which the responsible and the “grafters” – those who work hard – are properly rewarded.

He will talk in his speech of a “quiet crisis” in Britain and the “failure of a system” which too often rewarded “not the right people with the right values, but the wrong people with the wrong values”.

He will add: “Labour will always stand as the voice of the people, our people. Their values will be heard. And we will challenge the vested interests that benefit when the wrong values are rewarded.

“Never again should they be able to take advantage of a system which doesn’t work to the values and instincts of decent people in our country.”

However, Conservative Party co-chairwoman Baroness Warsi blamed Labour’s 13 years in office for “the ’something-for-nothing’ culture.

“If Ed Miliband was serious about turning that around, he wouldn’t be opposing our reforms to the welfare system to make work pay,” she said.

She argued that, under the previous Labour government, small businesses had been “strangled” with red tape and social mobility had stalled, and accused Mr Miliband of opposing government plans to address the problems.

“Ed Miliband can’t deliver on these promises because his party left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. This is opportunistic rhetoric from a weak leader.”

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.