Miliband returns to the ‘promise of Britain’ with pitch to middle class

Ed Miliband’s cost of living crisis campaign has, so far, tended to focus more on those who are seriously struggling and turning to food banks or turning off their heating in cold weather. But today the Labour leader turns to the middle classes in a Telegraph op ed. His assessment is downbeat as you would expect: Miliband needs pessimism in order to succeed in 2015, while the Tories need an upbeat vision (but not, as most senior party figures accept, so upbeat an economy that voters think it safe to back Labour).

It is interesting that Miliband sees the middle class as a group worth bidding for: he clearly feels there has been a sufficient gap left by the other parties for Labour to sneak into. The implication being, of course, that Labour is not the welfare party, but the Tories are too preoccupied with the interests of the wealthy.