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Ed Miliband: "Frankly Treasury ministers should be worrying about the cost of living crisis...not making up things about the Labour party"
Ed Miliband has described claims of a £27.9bn "black hole" in Labour's spending plans as "nonsense".
An analysis of Treasury data released by the Tories claims Labour promises would require more than £1,000 extra borrowing per household in 2015.
But Mr Miliband insisted Labour's plans were "clearly costed".
The Labour leader told the BBC's Andrew Marr show the party would not increase borrowing to fund "day-to-day" spending if he wins the 2015 election.
Mr Miliband is using his party's annual conference, which is getting under way in Brighton, to announce a series of policies aimed at tackling what he says is a cost of living "crisis" in the UK.
The party has said it would extend childcare and axe controversial changes to housing benefit affecting social tenants in England, Scotland and Wales deemed to have spare bedrooms.
Immigration capA senior party figure has also hinted at tax rises for the highest earners, saying people earning £60,000 would be spared as they were "not rich".
"Start Quote
End QuoteThe Labour leader seemed to regard today's questions as an invitation not to give an answer but to deliver a pre-tested soundbite on a vaguely related issue."
Mr Miliband refused to be drawn on income tax policy in his Andrew Marr interview, saying it would be announced closer to the general election.
But he did give further details of his plans to tackle immigration by making big companies train a new apprentice for each skilled worker they hire from outside the EU.
He also confirmed that Labour would keep the coalition's cap on immigration from outside the EU, saying: "I do want to get low-skill immigration down and therefore overall immigration down, yes."
He told Andrew Marr: "In our first year in office we will legislate for an immigration bill which has secure control of our borders, cracks down on exploitation of workers coming here undercutting workers already here, and says to big companies that bring in people from outside the EU that they can do that, within a cap, but they have got to train the next generation."
The apprenticeship scheme would affect foreign nationals brought in under Tier 2 of the points-based immigration system - those offered a skilled job to fill a gap in the workforce that cannot be filled by a settled worker.
Minimum wageLabour said its research had found that many recently created apprenticeships have been for low-quality courses, and demanded that the number of high-quality apprenticeships be doubled.
It claims the policy would create up to 125,000 high quality apprenticeships over the next parliament.
Mr Miliband also promised action on the minimum wage, which is due to rise next month from £6.19 to £6.31.
"Start Quote
End Quote CBI spokesmanIf we want to get more businesses offering more apprentices, it will be crucial to keep bureaucracy to a minimum"
He said the party would "crack down" on companies that failed to pay workers the minimum wage and would look at setting a higher minimum wage in certain sectors, such as finance.
"The minimum wage must be set at a level where it is not going to cost jobs, that's really important and so that's what we have got to look at."
Asked if the basic minimum wage would go up, he told Andrew Marr: "That's something we are going to look at."
Poll woesThe Confederation of British Industry said Mr Miliband's apprenticeship scheme would lead to more "red tape" for firms.
"If we want to get more businesses offering more apprentices, it will be crucial to keep bureaucracy to a minimum and to make sure employers are in the driving seat when it comes to targeting funding," said the CBI's director for education and skills Neil Carberry.
The CBI also attacked Mr Miliband's plans for different levels of minimum wage for different kinds of job, saying it would be "unworkable and hit smallest companies the hardest".
The Tories' analysis of treasury data that put a shortfall in Labour's spending commitments at £27.9bn was put together using written questions in parliament and Freedom of Information requests.
The spending commitments listed included the cancelling of reductions to legal aid, scrapping the so-called bedroom tax, introducing a jobs guarantee and cutting VAT back to 17.5%.
Revenue raising commitments from new taxes and savings were subtracted from the spending commitments, and that is how the figure was arrived at.
In the interview with Andrew Marr, Mr Miliband condemned the actions of former Treasury colleague Damian McBride, who has confessed to briefing against Labour ministers thought to be threat to Gordon Brown, saying such behaviour was "reprehensible".
He said he had urged Mr Brown to sack the spin doctor.
He also brushed off concerns that the Labour Party under his leadership was failing to get its message across to voters, saying the only poll that counted was the general election.
A poll of Labour councillors for the BBC's Sunday Politics found that one in three did not think Mr Miliband is doing a good job.
According to the ComRes survey of 1,350 - out of a total 6,842 - Labour councillors in England and Wales, 57% thought Mr Miliband was doing a good job as Labour leader but only 49% thought he should lead the party into the next election, while 30% thought they would stand a better chance of winning with a different leader.
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