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Andrew Sparrow with all the day’s politics news including more reaction to the Boundary Commission report 10.13am: Miliband says unions have to embrace change. You know the biggest challenge you face when you try to do this: relevance. Relevance in how firms grow. Relevance in how workers get on. Relevance right across the private sector. And you know you will never have relevance for many workers in this country if you allow yourselves to be painted as the opponents of change. No. In the new economy you can, and must, be the agents of the right kind of change. You know the new economy that emerges from this crisis must be built on foundations of co-operation, not conflict, in the workplace. This sounds like pure Tony Blair. 10.11am: Miliband urges the unions to get more involved in the private sector. Unions can offer businesses the prospect of better employee relations … As you know better than I, just 15 per cent of the private sector workforce are members of trade unions. You know that you need to change, if that is to change. That is why so many unions are making huge efforts to engage with the other 85%. 10.09am: Miliband says, under Labour, every company would have to offer apprenticeships if it wanted to bid for major government contracts. He also says every company should have an employee on the remuneration committee setting pay and bonuses for top staff. 10.07am: Miliband says that Labour were in power, there would be cuts. If we were in government, we would also be making some cuts in spending. I sometimes hear it said that Labour opposes every cut. Some people might wish that was true. But it’s not. We committed ourselves to halving the deficit over four years. That would mean cuts. Like our plans for a 12% cut in the police budget – not the 20% being implemented by this government. And also concedes that Labour wasted some spending. We all recognise that not every penny that the last government spent was spent wisely. All of us know that there is waste in any government. 10.05am: Miliband says that government needs to use procurement to help innovative companies grow. And that includes companies like Bombardier – being sold down the river by this government. That gets a brief burst of applause. 10.04am: Miliband says creating a new economy will involve rejecting some old ideas. Rejecting the old view that the best government is always less government. The old view that short term shareholder interests are always in best for Britain’s companies. And the old view from some on both sides of industry, that employee representation must mean confrontation not cooperation. A new economy will mean the government, employers, and the workforce all shouldering new responsibilities. 10.02am: Miliband says there is an alternative to what the government is offering. First, prioritise tax cuts for the hard-working majority, not the super-rich. Cut VAT now to 17.5% to get the economy moving again. Second, insist that those who caused the crisis help pay to put it right. Renew the bankers’ bonus tax and use the money to support enterprise, put the young unemployed back to work, and to build homes. Third, provide some international leadership. Because if every country and continent simply focuses on its own strategy we will never get the growth we need. And I say to this Government, if you want an export led recovery, you won’t get it from the world engaging in collective austerity. 10.01am: Miliband says Osborne is obsessed with cutting the 50p top rate of tax. The claim that it doesn’t raise that much money because people avoid paying it. It is nonsense. But if that is the best they can do, I’ve got a suggestion: Mr Osborne, I’ve got a message for you. If people are avoiding their taxes it’s your job to stop them. 9.58am: Miliband turns to strikes. So I fully understand why millions of decent public sector workers feel angry. But while negotiations were going on, I do believe it was a mistake for strikes to happen. I continue to believe that. But what we need now is meaningful negotiation to prevent further confrontation over the autumn. At this point some delegates jeer. Watching the speech on TV, it is hard to know how many were involved, but it sounded like just a handful of people in the audience, certainly not a majority. 9.57am: Miliband says Labour worked with trade unions to reform public sector pensions. But the Tories have set about reform in “completely the wrong way”. Even before John Hutton’s report was complete, they announced a 3% surcharge on millions of your members. 9.55am: Miliband attacks George Osborne for describing Britain as a “safe haven” economically. Tell that to the thousands of people who lost their jobs last month. Tell that to the 16,000 businesses that have gone bust in the last four quarters. Tell that to the millions of British families struggling to make ends meet. There is no safe haven for them. The Tories have not learnt that you cannot cut your way out of a deficit, he says. The evidence is piling up showing how the Tories are wrong to be cutting too far and too fast. 9.54am: Miliband says Britain needs a new economic model. In the face of massive competition from countries like China and India, too often the British answer has been to compete on the basis of low pay and low skills. And too often it leaves workers facing insecure prospects. My message to you today is not simply about this Government. Not simply about the immediate economic difficulties we face. It is something more profound. We have to challenge many of the assumptions on which economic policy has been based for a generation. 9.53am: Miliband comes on to his first joke (or semi-joke) of the speech. Ok, by now maybe you’re thinking, hang on, we’ve seen this movie before. He’s about to get to the bit where he tells us to “modernise or die.” You’re half right. I am going to talk about change. And then he moves on to the best soundbite so far. I’m not just going to talk about how people need to change to suit our economy. I’m also going to talk about how we change our economy to suit the needs of people. 9.52am: Miliband comes on to the passage briefed in advance about his own relationship with the unions. Of course, there are times when you and I will disagree. You will speak your mind. And so will I. But our link is secure enough, mature enough, to deal with disagreement. Because the relationship between party and unions is not about romance or nostalgia. It is about respect and shared values. It is a relationship in which we listen to each other when we disagree. And we know that what unites us is greater than what divides us. 9.50am: Miliband says unions members should never feel like “passive or unwanted members of our movement”. He wants them to feel part of it. and he wants to reach out to union members who are not members of the Labour party. 9.49am: Miliband says stories like this do not receive much attention. But they highlight the role unions play. I come to this conference as a Labour leader who believes you deserve credit for these stories, the daily work you do. And what do people say about new democracies around the world? Even the Tories. They say the right to join a trade union is vital. If we say it abroad, we should say it at home too. These are the reasons why I value the link between the trade union movement and the Labour Party. It is why I will resist any attempt to break it. 9.47am: Miliband talks about meeting Sodexo dinner ladies in Richmond last year. They had no sick pay and changing shift patterns and they had to buy their own uniforms. This is the story of too many people in Britain today. And surely these low-paid women had no chance against one of the most powerful companies in the world? Wrong. They got together, they sought the help of a union, Unison, and they campaigned for these basic rights. 9.45am: Ed Miliband is speaking now. He starts with a reference to 9/11. Tony Blair was due to address the TUC in Brighton when the Twin Towers were attacked. Miliband asks the audience to remember those killed. He says he is “proud” of his links with the unions. I am proud to come here today as Labour’s leader. Proud of the relationship between the trade unions and the Labour Party, based on shared values of equality, fairness and social justice. But most of all, I’m proud to be here because of who you represent: The hard working men and women of Britain. 9.44am: Ed Miliband is about to start now. 9.39am: My colleague Hélène Mulholland is at the TUC conference waiting for Ed Miliband’s speech. She’s sent me this. In an ideal world, public sector unions would like to hear him say he will support any future strikes against the reforms that the government wants to impose on public sector pension schemes, but in practice they know they will not get it. We’re never going to agree on everything, he is expected to say, but “what unites us is greater than what divides us.” Many of those most angry with him have promised they will give him a “polite”reception as he addresses them at Congress House, the TUC’s headquarters where the scaled-down three day conference is being held. We shall be listening out for the volume levels of applause when he concludes his speech. The Labour leader will take a brief question and answer session, before motions are debated in a conference which yesterday seemed rather subdued due to the much smaller venue and delegations. Highlights include a composite motion condemning the health and social care bill going through parliament and one, to be moved by the NASUWT teaching union, on the privatisation of schools. The motion includes calls to set up local campaigns to oppose free schools being set up. This afternoon, media regulation will be debated in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. The most controversial motion of the day may well prove to be the one lobbed in by the Professional Footballers’ Association, which calls on the devolved nations to put their differences to one side and field one Great Britain Football Team in the 2012 Olympic Games. Consensus? I very much doubt it. There’s also an off-piste motion from the Society of Chiropodist and Podiatrists on the fact that wearing the wrong trainers can cause increased strains and help develop arthritis. Who knew? 9.32am: Here are the headline inflation figures. • The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 4.5% in August from 4.4% in July. • The headline rate of retail prices index (RPI) inflation rose to 5.2% in August from 5% in July. • The underlying rate of RPI inflation rose to 5.3% in August from 5% in July. There are more details on the Office for National Statistics website. Ed Miliband will be starting his speech shortly. 9.24am: Bob Crow , general secretary of the RMT union (which is not affiliated to Labour), has also been on the Today programme this morning. He said unions were more inclined to coordinate industrial action with other unions than they were in the past. I’ve taken the quote from PoliticsHome. Where before a union may have been a bit narrow-sighted and taken action on its own, it is now going to look around the other unions in the same predicament as ourselves and to coordinate that action. 9.14am: Ed Miliband would not have won the Labour leadership if it had not been for the votes of union members. But since then he has been anxious not to be seen as too close to them. As a reminder of the background to today’s speech, here are a couple of links. • Miliband’s response to the public sector strike in June. In a speech to the Local Government Association he said: “I understand the anger of workers who feel they are being singled out by a reckless and provocative government. But I believe this action is wrong.” • Union reaction to Miliband’s stance. Mary Bousted, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers general secretary, said Miliband’s response to the strike was “a disgrace”. 9.13am: Ahead of Ed Miliband’s speech to the TUC, Len McCluskey , the Unite general secretary, has been renewing his call for trade unionists to use civil disobediance as one means of opposing goverment cuts. According to PoliticsHome, this is what he told the Today programme. We are talking about developing a coalition of resistance with church groups, with student groups, with community groups and retired members organisations so that we can start to develop the kind of narrative that expresses people’s concerns and in that context civil disobedience – I mean people get very tetchy about it – especially the media – civil disobedience has been the oldest form of protest in a democracy … There is all forms of civil disobedience that have served us well throughout the history of our movement. 8.47am: The relationship is “mature enough to deal with disagreement”, we’re going to hear today. No, David Cameron is not stuck in Moscow giving another speech about relations with the Kremlin – this is what Ed Miliband is going to be telling the TUC about Labour’s links with the trade unions. Miliband is speaking at 9.30am, and it may be the key event of the morning. I’ll be covering it minute by minute, as well as providing analysis and reaction. There is also continuing interest in the Boundary Commission report. Here’s the Guardian story from Nicholas Watt explaining how much turmoil the proposals are causing, and my colleagues Simon Rogers and James Ball have just posted a constituency by constituency analysis showing who will benefit. They say that the Conservatives would have been within striking distance of an overall majority if the 2010 election had been fought on these boundaries. As more reaction comes in, I’ll be reporting on it. Here’s a full diary for the day . 9.30am : Ed Miliband speaks at the TUC conference. As Patrick Wintour and Hélène Mulholland report in the Guardian today , he will urge union leaders not to rush into premature strikes over government plans to cut their members’ pensions. 9.30am : Inflation figures for August are published. 2.30pm: Liam Fox, the defence secretary, delivers a speech at the opening of the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair. Around 3pm : Peers debate the welfare reform bill at its second reading. As Patrick Wintour reports , the debate coincides with the release of a report from the Commons public accounts committee raising doubts about the government’s plans to introduce a system of universal credit. 3.15pm: Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, gives evidence to the Commons transport committee on high speed rail. 3.20pm: Sir Ian Kennedy, the chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, gives evidence to the Commons committee on members’ expenses. As usual, I’ll also be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one at about 4pm. Ed Miliband Labour TUC Trade unions House of Commons MPs’ expenses Transport policy Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk