Get me into No10 and you call the tune, Ed tells unions
A DESPERATE Ed Miliband invited trade unions to hold him to ransom if they deliver the keys to No10, urging them to ‘call on me’.
The Labour leader, who is neck and neck with David Cameron UK-wide, but facing humiliation in Scotland, pointedly ignored the SNP, underlining the message that the General Election is a two-horse race.
The unions made Mr Miliband Labour leader when MPs and party members backed his brother David – and in his speech to the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Ayr yesterday, he begged the audience to help him win in May.
He said: ‘Together we can write a new chapter for Scotland and the United Kingdom.
‘This is the chance we have in just 17 days. Today, I call on you. And then in 17 days, for five years you can call on me to fight for working people in our country.’
In an unsurprisingly Left- wing speech, he claimed to be on the side of workers and their families. He made promises on raising the minimum wage, ending blacklisting and abolishing zero hour contracts.
But he suffered embarrassment earlier in the day as the other headline speaker, Leslie Manasseh, president of the TUC, failed to mention him – or Labour – once.
Mr Miliband said: ‘If anyone doubts the stakes at this election, just think about another five years of David Cameron and George Osborne.
‘All of you will have to make the judgment about how best you can get rid of this government. Right across England and Wales the mood i s turning against the Tories.
‘And we know why – another five years of Tory austerity, another five years when they plan to increase the cuts, another five years of falling living standards, another five years of insecurity at work. I say working families can’t afford another five years. Scotland can’t afford another five years. Let’s not take that risk.
‘I ask for your vote as the only way to guarantee that we see the back of this Tory government.’
He promised to end ‘ Tory austerity’, but admitted Labour would still make ‘ commonsense reductions’ – the only fleeting nod to the cuts his party knows will have to be imposed.
But the STUC warned that despite the strong economic recovery, almost half a million Scots cannot find full-time work.
General secretary Grahame Smith said: ‘It is shocking that an estimated 455,000 people in Scotland want but are unable to find full-time employment.
‘The excessively optimistic scenarios painted by both the Scottish and UK Government are too reliant on headline measures of employment and unemployment which no longer provide an accurate gauge of labour demand.’
Mr Manasseh also attacked the Tories’ record – but made no mention of Mr Miliband or any of Labour’s policies in his speech.
He said: ‘There are 180,000 Scott i sh workers on zero hour contracts. Workers without rights
– that’s part of the Coalition government’s plan.’
Yesterday, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy took part in a charity football match against a Tory team to raise money for motor neurone disease campaigner Gordon Aikman in his fight against the terminal condition.
Today he will again talk down the relevance of the SNP in the UK election.
Mr Murphy, who is in danger of losing his own East Renfrewshire seat, will tell a rally in Glasgow: ‘Scotland needs to rebuild our NHS, not rerun the referendum. The SNP promised to rule out a referendum for a generation and they’ve reneged on that pledge. Labour has pledged to invest in the NHS and we will keep that promise.
‘Only Labour is big enough and strong enough across the UK to get the Tories out.’
‘Call on me to fight for working people’