Labour and Europe - is that clear now?

FT headline - "Miliband rules out early EU poll". Mirror headline - "Ed: we will give EU an in-out vote".

At first sight, these two headlines suggest that Ed Miliband's speech on Europe today has created confusion.

In fact they sum up exactly what the Labour leader is trying to achieve. A message of reassurance to big business that a future Labour government will, unlike the Tories, not put Britain's EU membership at risk.

At the same time, a message of reassurance to the wider electorate that no further powers will be given to Brussels without them getting a say in a referendum.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, summed up the party's position on a referendum as "possible but unlikely".

The policy is a compromise between those, like Alexander, who warned their leader that matching the Tory referendum promise might be popular but would risk destroying a future Labour government and those led by Ed Balls who warned that the party looked like it was on the side of the elites against the people.

The result is nuanced and will be torn into by the Tories and their friends in the press who will claim there is now a simple choice between those who will guarantee you an in/out vote and those who won't.

Labour knew that but Ed Miliband is hoping his speech will set up another simple choice for the electorate.

He will invite voters to choose between a government led by David Cameron which he'll claim would be obsessed with Europe and riven by splits over it and one led by him which would focus on what most people care about more - the economy, living standards and the NHS.