Miliband: 'The problem with Nick'

The leader of the Labour party has told Andrew Marr he thinks Nick Clegg is "a perfectly nice guy" but that the Lib Dem leader had made a choice which Miliband didn't think was progressive. Ed Miliband said it would be difficult to work with Nick Clegg, but that if he were to be a "sinner repenteth" then maybe things would change.

He again appealed to Liberal Democrat MPs to work together with the Labour party to reverse the decision to abolish educational maintenance allowances.

Miliband said he wanted fairer society and strong communities. He said his party hadn't valued the local institutions enough when they were in government. They were "too open to the market" and "too remote in the way they used the state power".

In an interview on the Andrew Marr Show the Labour leader said he wouldn't set out his party's tax plans until the next election. He said he thought the government's plans to "squeeze the living standards" of middle earners was the "wrong strategy for the country".

When asked about fuel duty, Ed Miliband said the government "should be doing more internationally to bring the prices down". He said Labour had found it hard to put forward a fuel duty stabiliser when they were in Government, but they "shouldn't have raised VAT" at the beginning of this year.

Ed Miliband told Andrew Marr he "totally condemns" the strikes that have been proposed to disrupt the royal wedding and the Olympics. The Labour leader said that industrial action was a "sign of failure on both sides" and political argument should be done through campaigning and voting.

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