LABOUR failed to do enough to improve transport and housing across the North during its 13 years in power, David Miliband admitted.
The front-runner to succeed Gordon Brown as leader pledged to give both issues “a higher priority” if he reaches No 10, but without saying where the money would come from.
The admission followed fierce criticism of Labour’s failure to build Merseytram, slow progress on high-speed rail lines, half-hearted efforts to improve bus and rail services and soaring housing waiting lists.
In an interview with the Daily Post, Mr Miliband also set out his stall as the business-friendly candidate to win back support from a sector which deserted Labour en masse in May.
He predicted the Con-Lib coalition would crack under the strain, rather than last five years, pointing to yesterday’s embarrassment, when Nick Clegg – to Tory horror – called the Iraq invasion “illegal”.
He also shrugged off his brother Ed’s success in winning backing from the leaders of Unison, the giant public sector union, saying: “Every trade unionist who pays the political levy has a vote – and that will be the test.”
With a marathon 54 hustings up and down the country nearly completed, the shadow Foreign Secretary’s team believe he is significantly ahead of his four rivals.
Mr Miliband said: “The real tragedy is we knew we had a long haul to bring back wealth creation and social cohesion to the North.
“I felt we were really reaching take-off point with apprenticeships building up, with the RDAs getting going, with business formation growing, with universities getting going.
“Would we do things differently? We would give a higher priority to transport and housing in the future.”
But Mr Miliband suggested Labour’s priority must be to woo southern voters, arguing it was impossible to win back power with just 12 out of 210 seats in the South outside London. Raising the alarm over the way business leaders ran away from Gordon Brown, he said: “I do not want to fight another election when not a single major business comes out and supports Labour’s economic policy.
“I am determined we are going to be a party known for spreading wealth creation, as well as for spreading wealth.”
Mr Miliband also unveiled a five-point plan to “get us back in the game”, including an infrastructure “investment bank”, 60% of young people in education or training, a “living wage” and a state-led industrial strategy, modelled on Germany.
