Labour lost touch with public and members - Ed Miliband

Labour leader Ed Miliband is to admit his party's leadership lost touch both with its own members and the public.

In a speech in Wrexham to his national policy forum, he will propose reforms aimed at making the party less insular and its decision-making more open.

He will say the last Labour government did not listen to concerns over issues like immigration and housing benefits.

The Tories say Labour ignores the way its leader is elected. They criticise the trade unions' role in that process.

In his speech to party activists and trade unionists, Mr Miliband is expected to unveil a series of proposals.

Its annual conference will be opened up to campaign groups and charities - who will be allowed to speak from the floor in debates although they will not get to vote on policies.

Local Labour parties will be allowed to organise petitions on issues which they feel ought to be debated at national level, and if they can demonstrate enough support, those issues will be placed on the agenda at future meetings of the policy forum.

There will also be a new code of conduct for the party's candidates and politicians to ensure they meet voters regularly and are transparent about their expenses.

And following on from an idea trialled in Oxford and Birmingham, local parties across the UK will get extra resources if they sign up more supporters.
Looking outwards
Mr Miliband is also expected to cite the decision under Prime Minister Gordon Brown to abolish the 10p starting rate of income tax, which saw millions of low earners lose out.

In his speech Mr Miliband is expected to say: "'Old Labour forgot about the public. New Labour forgot about the party.

“Start Quote

The party was trying to tell us what the people wanted us to know ”

End Quote Ed Miliband

"And, by the time we left office, we had lost touch with both.'

Turning to the policies of the last Labour government, he will say: "We went from six people making decisions in a smoke-filled committee room to six people making the decisions from a sofa in Whitehall. Sometimes less than six.

"But the party was trying to tell us what the people wanted us to know. They were telling us about immigration, about housing benefits and about the 10p tax. We didn't listen."

He will go on to defend plans to scrap elections to the shadow cabinet. The move to take sole responsibility for frontbench appointments has been criticised by some backbench MPs who feel they will be distanced from the party's top team.

Mr Miliband will say shadow cabinet elections sees the party "look inwards not outwards".

"I want us to be an alternative government," he will say. "The only election members of the shadow cabinet should be worrying about is the general election."

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said it is understood that Mr Miliband does not intend to address the party's leadership rules highlighted by the Conservatives, which allowed him to be elected with the help of union votes, despite more party members favouring his brother, David.

He has already said these will be revised as part of a series of changes which will go to the party's autumn conference, under the banner Refounding Labour.