New Labour leader describes school building cuts as 鈥檌rresponsible鈥

The new leader of the Labour party Ed Miliband has used his first leader鈥檚 speech to the Labour Party Conference to hit out at cuts to the school building programme.

Miliband said the coalition government was endangering the recovery by cutting spending too quickly, as he used his speech to set out 鈥済ood society鈥 vision for the Labour Party and allay fears over a swing to the left.

He said: 鈥淭he starting point for a responsible plan is to halve the deficit over four years, but growth is our priority and we must remain vigilant against a downturn.

鈥淵ou see when you cancel thousands of new school buildings at a stroke, it isn鈥檛 just bad for our kids, it鈥檚 bad for construction companies at a time when their order books are empty.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not responsible, it鈥檚 irresponsible,鈥 he added.

Miliband also joined criticism from shadow business secretary Pat McFadden earlier today of the decision to cancel a proposed 拢80m loan to nuclear manufacturing firm Sheffield Forgemasters.

The new leader may have raised fears from construction employers however, by saying he would 鈥渃hallenge the old thinking that flexible labour markets are always the answer.鈥 He said: 鈥淓mployers should not be allowed to exploit migrant labour in order to undercut wages.鈥

Developers may also be alarmed by rhetoric around protecting high streets from redevelopment. He said: 鈥淲e must be on the side of people trying to protect their high street from looking like every other high street, not the people who say that鈥檚 just the forces of progress.鈥