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Labour leader’s conference speech sides with ‘people who don’t hack phones, loot shops, fiddle expenses or earn huge salaries’ Ed Miliband will target asset strippers and antisocial tenants on Tuesday as he vows to rebuild society so that the values of the decent majority are heard, ending a morally inverted system that rewards vested interests with the wrong values. In his major speech to the Labour party conference, he will also attack suggestions that company executives are the only ones that create prosperity, saying “the true wealth creators are not just an elite, but every man and woman who goes out to work”. In a strong moral judgment, historically avoided by Labour, he will say that those in work and contributing to their local community should be given preference over the jobless in allocating social housing. The speech is seen as critical to lifting the electorate’s doubts about his leadership qualities and the radical political direction he wants to take his party. It will be delivered against a backdrop of overnight polls suggesting the Tories may have taken a one-point lead, a dispiriting finding for Labour in view of the deepening recession and large spending cuts. Building on his central theme of his year-old leadership – greater responsibility at the top and at the bottom – he will offer a new bargain in which rich and poor can get ahead so long as they play by the rules of the quiet majority. He will also offer himself as the spokesman for the law-abiding silent majority, claiming: “There is a quiet crisis which does not get the headlines. It’s about people who don’t make a fuss, who don’t hack phones, loot shops, fiddle their expenses or earn telephone number salaries at the banks.” He will claim this quiet crisis suggests something fundamental and deep is gripping the country – “the failure of a system, a way of doing things, a set of rules”. He will draw a distinction between the wealth creators and the asset strippers, such as the private care home group Southern Cross, saying for years the country has been neutral between these two kinds of business. He will say: “For years they have been taxed the same, regulated the same, treated the same, celebrated the same.” In a potentially interventionist stance he will vow: “They won’t be by me.” The business secretary, Vince Cable, has already established a review, led by Professor John Kay, into how to reward long-termism in business. In a move designed to win back working class voters disillusioned by Labour’s perceived failure to tackle welfare cheats, he will say: “The hard truth is that we still have a system where reward for work is not high enough, where benefits are too easy to come by for those who abuse the system and don’t work for those who do the right thing.” He will say local authorities should be required in preparing social housing allocation policies not simply to take into account need, but also people’s contribution to society – “whether the recipients are working, whether they look after their property and are good neighbours”. He will say: “Our first duty should be to help the person who shows responsibility, and I say every council should recognise the contribution people are making.” He will also urge universities to do more to accept students from a wider range of social backgrounds. He will point out that in any one year “more than a quarter of our schools don’t even send five kids to the most competitive universities”. He will condemn the closed circles at the top of society that shut out talented young people. But in a sign of the problems Miliband faces in campaigning against the government, the Unison general secretary Dave Prentis drew loud applause at the largely somnolent conference when he called on Miliband to back strikes to protect public sector pensions. Prentis said: “It’s no time to sit on the fence when this country faces a stark choice between taking on the powerful and privileged, or letting the price be paid by the poor and the powerless. My members are no militants. But they will stand up for what’s fair, what’s right.” Miliband has said he did not support the unions’ day of action in June, and has urged the unions to negotiate rather than strike in November, arguing a strike would be a sign of failure. Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, said: “Ed will have to make his decisions and it is important that he is seen to be on the side of ordinary working people.” If he did not support the strike, McCluskey said, “that will be damaging for him. I don’t expect him to be on the picket lines, but I expect him to support the strikes.” He rejected any suggestion of a rupture with Miliband over the issue. Earlier at the conference, Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, made a succession of apologies over the way in which Labour handled the economy in government, but refused to accept that the party had overspent prior to the banking crash in 2008. He claimed the government’s plans were not working and urged it to change course. Ed Miliband Labour conference 2011 Labour Labour conference Economic policy Economics Crime Welfare Trade unions Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk