Ed Miliband urged to 'reveal vision or risk a revolt'

Ed Miliband was today told he should lay out his vision to return Labour to power by autumn next year.

Amid growing concerns over his leadership, shadow Cabinet minister Liam Byrne said Opposition leaders were expected within two years to set out their stall so voters knew for what their party now stood.

Shadow work and pension secretary Mr Byrne was not seeking to be disloyal. But his frankness laid bare the timescale that Mr Miliband has to
convince the electorate he is a Prime Minister-in-waiting or risk more serious disquiet within Labour over whether it can win with him at the helm.

"Given where we started it is actually going to take a couple of years for us to start developing the policy that we need for the future in some detail," Mr Byrne added. "But the starting point has got to be an analysis of where we are in the country and a direction of travel and he [Miliband] has set that out very clearly."

Mr Miliband today launched a fightback against growing mutterings over his leadership after a poor performance at last week's Prime Minister's Questions and publication of a book claiming he is on frosty terms with his brother David, who he beat in the leadership race last September.

In a keynote speech in London, he was due to repeat his determination to stand up for the "squeezed middle" while criticising bankers and job-shy benefits cheats who "shirk their duty".
Controversially, he proposed that it should be easier for hard-working families and voluntary workers to get a council home.

Teenagers whose parents are unemployed could also be asked to attend workshops and interviews under Labour's plans. If they refuse, benefits may be cut.

In the City, banks and other major firms may have to publish the ratio of boardroom to average employee pay.

Labour's policy review is also examining the case for including employee representatives on remuneration committees at large companies.
"For too many people at the last election, we were seen as the party that represented these two types of people: those at the top and the bottom who were not showing responsibility and were shirking their duty to each other," he was due to say.

He spoke out after David Miliband was forced to deny that he was still coveting Labour's top job. "I have moved on from the leadership election and so should everyone else," he said in a statement. "Ed won, I stand fully behind him and so should everyone else."