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Labour's Miliband makes pitch to be next PM at party conference

September 23, 2014

At Labour's last party conference before elections next year, UK opposition leader Ed Miliband pledged higher funds for health care and vowed to improve taxation, but largely ignored economic or foreign policy issues.

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Großbritannien Politik Labour Party Ed Miliban
Image: Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett

Labour party opposition leader Ed Miliband delivered his final speech at a party conference on Tuesday in Manchester in northern England, setting out his 10-year plan to build what he called a "world-class Britain."

"In the next eight months the British people face one of the biggest choices in generations," he told delegates. "A choice between carrying on as we are, on your own, for the privileged few, or a different, better future for our country."

In his speech, delivered without notes, the Labour party's candidate for prime minister pledged an extra 2.5 billion pounds (3.2 billion euros, $4.1 billion) annually "to save and transform" the UK's National Health Service (NHS).

He plans to pay for the increase by a clampdown on tax loopholes, a tax on the most expensive properties and a levy on cigarette makers.

He emphasized that Britain belonged in the European Union but failed to give any details of his stance on what the UK's policy on Syria should look like and whether he would back Britain's military involvement in the fight against "Islamic State" (IS) in Syria.

Miliband also did not mention the economy beyond a pledge to raise the minimum wage. He failed, for example, to mention how he would handle Britain's deficit.

Labour is narrowly ahead of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party in opinion polls, but Miliband faces a tough task to win May's elections, as even some of his own activists think he is not the most inspiring leader.

Labour, which was in power from 1997-2010, should enjoy a much bigger lead in opinion polls at this stage in the electoral cycle than one or two percentage points if it is to win, experts say.

ng/dr (Reuters, AFP)