Ed Miliband’s eve of poll speech in Leeds
**Check against delivery**
It is great to be in Leeds.
What a fantastic turnout this is.
And let’s thank the brilliant Shaun Dooley for that introduction.
And let’s hear it too for Hilary Benn.
Rachel Reeves.
Paula Sherriff.
Veronica King.
Holly Lynch.
And Richard Corbett.
Friends, tomorrow we have the chance to change our country.
Tomorrow we have the chance to say that Britain can be better than this.
Tomorrow we have the chance to build a country that works for working people, not just a privileged few.
Tomorrow we have the chance to get rid of these Tories and elect a Labour Government.
So as we go into this final day:
Let’s tell the country what we’re fighting for.
We’re fighting for a Britain where we reward the hard work of every working person, not just those that get the six-figure bonuses.
We’re fighting for a Britain where every young person, whatever their background, wherever they’re from, has the chance to live a life that’s better than their parents’.
We’re fighting for a Britain where everyone plays by the same rules, where we take on the tax evaders, the hedge funds and the Tory donors and say: enough is enough.
We’re fighting for a Britain where we rescue our precious National Health Service and run it with the right values at its heart.
And we’re fighting for a Britain that’s more fair, more equal, more tolerant, more prosperous and more just.
This is the Britain I believe in.
This is the Britain you believe in.
This is the Britain we’ll fight for with every breath tomorrow.
And don’t we know how this country needs to change?
How we need to get rid of this Conservative government?
We’ve seen it in how they have run the country for these past five years.
Putting the rich and powerful first, with taxes cut for millionaires and our public services stripped back to the bone.
Five years of food banks spreading across our country.
Five years of falling wages for working people.
Five years of rising bills for millions of families.
Five years of an epidemic of zero hours contracts.
Five years of the dream of home ownership shrinking from sight.
Let’s call it what it is:
Five years of unfairness.
Five years of failure.
Friends, we can’t have five more years of these Tories.
We mustn’t have five more years of these Tories.
Tomorrow let’s put an end to this Tory Government and elect a Labour Government.
And then just think about this campaign.
And how the Tories have done everything they can to avoid telling you about their plans for a second term.
David Cameron has ducked and dived.
He’s evaded and avoided.
He wasn’t there at the debates.
He hasn’t given the answers.
Because he wants to hide the truth.
But, friends, we know that truth.
The British people know that truth.
We know he’s planning to double the cuts next year.
The most extreme spending cuts of any political party for a generation.
Cuts that will put tax credits at risk.
Cuts that will put child benefit at risk.
Cuts that are a clear and present danger to the family finances of working people.
Family finances are on the ballot paper tomorrow and the only way to protect them is to vote Labour.
And we know that these Tory cuts threaten to destroy the NHS as we know it.
David Cameron wants us to trust him with our National Health Service.
But with five years of broken promises, five years of longer waiting times, and five years of privatisation, he has proved the oldest truth of all:
You can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.
And we know what kind of Prime Minister David Cameron is.
He’s a Prime Minister who’s strong at standing up to the weak but always weak standing up to the strong.
A Prime Minister who cuts taxes for millionaires and puts up them up for everyone else.
A Prime Minister who imposes the bedroom tax but opposes a mansion tax.
A Prime Minister who couldn’t live on a zero hours contract but is happy for everyone else to have to.
Well I have a different view, if it’s not good enough for me, it’s not good enough for the people of Britain.
In a Labour Britain, not one rule for the rich and powerful and another rule for everyone else.
But one rule for all.
And Britain needs a better plan, for a better future.
It needs a Labour plan.
And let me tell you what that means.
We will reward the hard work of everyone in our country, so we will raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour.
We do believe in security not insecurity at work, so we will ban those exploitative zero hours contracts and legislate for a new principle: if you do regular hours, you get a regular contract.
We will ensure all our young people have the opportunities they need to fulfil their dreams: guaranteed apprenticeships if you get the grades and tuition fees cut from £9,000 to £6,000.
We will oversee a revolution in home ownership, with one million new homes and zero stamp duty for first time buyers.
And we will have security for those who rent, with three year tenancies.
A cap on rent increases.
And a fair deal for the 11 million people who rent their homes in the private sector.
We will bring fairness back to our country.
And abolish this Government’s cruel, unfair, indefensible bedroom tax in every corner of the United Kingdom.
And we will rescue our NHS, and create a health service that has time to care once again.
So it is there for our children and our grandchildren as it has been there for us.
With a funded plan for 3,000 more midwives – that’s 3,000 reasons to vote Labour.
5,000 more careworkers: that’s 5,000 reasons to vote Labour.
8,000 more doctors: that’s 8,000 reasons to vote Labour.
And 20,000 more nurses: that’s 20,000 more reasons to vote to elect a Labour Government.
And unlike other parties, I can tell you where every penny of what is needed to pay for it is coming from: a mansion tax on properties above £2m, money from the tobacco companies.
And something else.
Something the Tories can’t do
Something the Tories would never do.
We’ll crack down on tax avoidance by the hedge funds in our country.
And while we are at it, we’ll do something no government has done for 200 years and abolish the non-dom rule.
Because this Party believes that those with the broadest shoulders should always bear the greatest burden.
And all of this is underpinned by cutting the deficit every year and balancing the books.
A secure economic foundation for our future.
So this is our plan.
This is what we believe.
And you know, this is what we’ve shown during this campaign.
I am incredibly proud of the campaign our Party has run.
This has been the biggest people-driven campaign in history.
At the start of this campaign I said that we wanted to have 4 million conversations in 4 months.
To take our message to the village halls, community centres and workplaces across our country.
Friends, thanks to your hard work, your commitment, your passion, we’ve smashed through that target.
Today we hit 5 million conversations.
Tomorrow it will be 6 million conversations.
As we go out right until 10pm and explain to the people of Britain how we build a country that works for working people again.
So I want to thank each and every one of you here tonight for everything you’ve done.
And we’ve done it because we know what’s at stake when the polling stations open in the morning.
The choice that faces the British people tomorrow.
We know that when all is said and done, this election isn’t just a contest between any particular policies.
It isn’t just a choice between parties or Prime Ministers.
It is a clash of two completely different ideas.
David Cameron believes that if the people on top do well, wealth will trickle down and all of Britain will prosper.
We have a different idea.
We believe that Britain succeeds when working people succeed.
We have only a few hours left.
This race is going to be the closest we have ever seen.
It is going to go down to the wire.
A few votes in a few seats that could define the next five years.
So now we’ve got to go out there and make it happen.
We’ve got to go out there tomorrow and go to every neighbourhood, walk every street, knock on every door, to make our case.
And we know how change happens.
How change has always happened.
Not because political leaders made it so.
But because people demanded it.
The trade unionists who at the turn of the century stood up and said “no more” to exploitation.
They were the ones who gave us workers’ rights.
The people who stood up and said “never again” to a patchwork health service.
They were the ones who gave us our NHS.
The women who worked at Ford in Dagenham who stood up and said this inequality will not stand.
They were the ones who gave us the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.
The gay and lesbian people who said we deserve rights and respect.
They were the ones who showed that the battle for equality can be won.
And so it now falls to you.
And people all across Britain are counting on you tomorrow.
And in the closing hours of this campaign, this is my message to the British people.
For five years this country has been run for the richest and most powerful.
But tomorrow is your day.
Tomorrow it’s your voice that counts.
Tomorrow you have the power to make Britain work for working people.
You have the power to build a country which rewards hard work again.
You have the power to build a future for our young people.
You have the power to rescue our NHS.
You have the power to elect a government that understands that it is only when working families succeed that Britain succeeds.
Use your power for you, your family, and our NHS.
Use your vote.
Vote Labour and together we can put working families first.
(via labourpress)
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