Miliband warns Labour on spending

9 January 2012 Last updated at 21:08 ET

Ed Miliband has said he has a plan and a clear direction for Labour

Labour leader Ed Miliband will tell his party that it needs to accept there will be less money to spend if it wins the next election.

Mr Miliband will use a speech in London to challenge those "who say Labour is only a party for good times".

He will say he "relishes the challenge" of taking Labour forward and dealing with the UK's economic problems.

Mr Miliband is also expected to address questions about his leadership which has been subject to recent speculation.

The opposition leader will say that with less money go round Labour must rethink how it hopes to achieve fairness across the UK.

While David Cameron offers "more of the same", Labour would reform the economy to ensure rewards are "fairly shared".

'Rethink'

In his first major speech of the year, the Labour leader will tell community groups the tough economic climate is a challenge for the opposition and very different from the benign economic conditions which faced the party when it won successive elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005.

"We live in tough times," he will say.

"In the years ahead, there will be less money to spend. It is a challenge for Labour.

"It is the same challenge facing parties on the centre-left all around the world. And it is a challenge for me. A challenge I relish."

Mr Miliband will argue that the "failure" of the government's economic policy will ensure that whoever wins the next election - scheduled for 2015 - will inherit a budget deficit, spending constraints and a "different landscape" from that which they may have once expected.

"We will have to make difficult choices that all of us wish we did not have to make," he will say.

"Labour knows what fairness means. It always will. But we must rethink how we achieve it for Britain. The ideas which won three elections won't be the ideas which win the election in 2015. So we will be a different party from the one we were in the past."

'Better discipline'

Amid claims the public is unconvinced by Labour's economic strategy, Mr Miliband will argue he has led the debate in his call for "responsible capitalism" and for action to tackle the pressure on living standards for low and middle earners.

"Everyone is now joining us talking about the squeezed middle," he will say. "But it is not enough just to talk about them. Suddenly David Cameron is falling over himself to say he too is burning with passion to take on 'crony capitalism'. Now he has accepted this, the battleground of politics, I say 'bring it on'.

Labour have dismissed speculation about Mr Miliband's leadership, saying the party is united behind him and the vision he has set out for reforming the economy and society.

Shadow Europe minister Emma Reynolds rejected suggestions the speech - on the day Parliament returns from the Christmas recess - was effectively a "re-launch" of his leadership and suggested "nobody had heard" of critic Lord Glasman in her constituency.

She told the BBC's Daily Politics: "Is he re-launching? Not necessarily. We are back in Parliament. That (making speeches) is what politicians usually do. Why should that be any different to a normal new year?"

A number of senior party figures, including former Home Secretary Alan Johnson and shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy, have said Labour cannot oppose all the government's spending cuts and must put forward a credible programme for reducing the deficit while protecting the most disadvantaged.

Mr Johnson has suggested Labour's message on the economy "is not getting through".

He told the Daily Mirror that Labour had had a "shaky start" to the year in what was a "pivotal" period for the party as it tries to establish itself as a credible alternative government.

Mr Miliband's leadership has been questioned in some quarters in recent weeks with ex-adviser and Labour peer Lord Glasman saying Labour seemed to have "no strategy and little strategy".

Mr Johnson - who quit as shadow chancellor in January 2010 - said the public "remained suspicious" about Labour.

While praising Mr Miliband's leadership on key issues, he said he must do more to "hammer home Labour's message" and provide an "authentic voice".

Labour needed to hone its message, act less like a "debating society" and stop apologising for the mistakes of the last government, he added.

Continue Reading... Labels: Labour, Miliband, spending, warns

US warns Iran against closing Hormuz oil route

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The U.S. warned Iran Wednesday that it will not tolerate any disruption of naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran's navy chief said the Islamic Republic is capable of closing the vital oil route if the West imposes new sanctions targeting Tehran's oil exports.

Iran's Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV that closing the strait, which is the only sea outlet for the crucial oil fields in and around the Persian Gulf, "is very easy" for his country's naval forces.

It was the second such warning by Iran in two days, reflecting Tehran's concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could hit the country's biggest source of revenue, its oil sector. On Tuesday, Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait if the West imposes such sanctions.

In response, the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet's spokeswoman warned that any disruption at the strait "will not be tolerated."

The spokeswoman, Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, said the U.S. Navy is "always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation."

With concern growing over a possible drop-off in Iranian oil supplies if sanctions are imposed, a senior Saudi oil official said Gulf Arab nations are ready to offset any loss of Iranian crude.

That reassurance led to a drop in world oil prices. In New York, benchmark crude fell 77 cents to $100.57 a barrel in morning trading. Brent crude fell 82 cents to $108.45 a barrel in London.

Western nations are growing increasingly impatient with Iran over its nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges, saying its program is geared toward generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

The U.S. Congress has passed a bill banning dealings with the Iran Central Bank, and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it despite his misgivings. Critics warn it could impose hardships on U.S. allies and drive up oil prices.

The bill could impose penalties on foreign firms that do business with Iran's central bank. European and Asian nations import Iranian oil and use its central bank for the transactions.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, with an output of about 4 million barrels of oil a day. It relies on oil exports for about 80 percent of its public revenues.

Iran has adopted an aggressive military posture in recent months in response to increasing threats from the U.S. and Israel that they may take military action to stop Iran's nuclear program.

The navy is in the midst of a 10-day drill in international waters near the strategic oil route. The exercises began Saturday and involve submarines, missile drills, torpedoes and drones. The war games cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of sea off the Strait of Hormuz, northern parts of the Indian Ocean and into the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea as a show of strength and could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels in the area.

Iranian media are describing how Iran could move to close the strait, saying the country would use a combination of warships, submarines, speed boats, anti-ship cruise missiles, torpedoes, surface-to-sea missiles and drones to stop ships from sailing through the narrow waterway.

Iran's navy claims it has sonar-evading submarines designed for shallow waters of the Persian Gulf, enabling it to hit passing enemy vessels.

A closure of the strait could temporarily cut off some oil supplies and force shippers to take longer, more expensive routes that would drive oil prices higher. It also potentially opens the door for a military confrontation that would further rattle global oil markets.

Iran claimed a victory this month when it captured an American surveillance drone almost intact. It went public with its possession of the RQ-170 Sentinel to trumpet the downing as a feat of Iran's military in a complicated technological and intelligence battle with the U.S.

American officials have said that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate the drone malfunctioned.

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Additional reporting from Adam Schreck in Dubai, UAE.

Continue Reading... Labels: against, closing, Hormuz, route, warns