The recent interventions by Tony Blair and Len McCluskey in the New Statesman shared one thing in common: a desire for Ed Miliband to set out a clearer alternative to the coalition’s programme. Today, during a local election campaign appearance in Newcastle, Miliband will attempt to do that when he announces six economic bills that Labour would introduce in next week’s Queen’s Speech were it in power. They include a housing bill, a finance bill, a consumers bill (focused on energy, transport and pensions), a jobs bill, a banking bill and an immigration bill.
The bills do not feature any new policies but do bring together those measures previously announced by the party, such as a reintroduced 10p tax rate funded by a mansion tax, a temporary VAT cut, a one year national insurance holiday for small firms, a jobs guarantee for every adult out of work for more than two years and every young person out of work for more than a year, the creation of a British Investment Bank and the introduction of a national register of landlords.
Content from our partners
