karlpejera: Ed Miliband: Queen's speech offers 'no change, no hope'

Labour leader accuses coalition of delivering nothing for unemployed people and families hit by double-dip recession

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has rounded on the government's legislative programme for the next 12 months, saying it offers "no change, no hope" for the unemployed and families hit by the recession.

"For a young person looking for work, the speech offers nothing," Miliband told MPs. "For a family whose living standards are being squeezed, this speech offers nothing. For the millions of people who think the government isn't on their side, this speech offers nothing."

The Labour leader delivered a hard-hitting attack on the prime minister, whom he accused of turning into "David Brent" within two years of taking power, after the government laid out its plans for the year ahead, including reform of the House of Lords.

Miliband told a packed Commons chamber that the government had created "the worst unemployment for 16 years, a million young people out of work and the first double-dip recession for 37 years".

Commenting on the Queen's speech, in which 19 bills had been unveiled, he said: "They promised recovery but they delivered recession ? a recession made in Downing Street. They have failed."

He added: "No change, no hope ? that is the real message of this Queen's speech."

The prime minister later stood up to defend the government's programme for the next 12 months, saying: "This is a government that is taking the tough decisions to help families who work hard and do the right thing, acting for the long term, governing in the national interest. This is a Queen's speech to rebuild Britain."

But Miliband said the package failed to offer proposals to boost growth, "relieve the squeeze on ordinary families", or tackle excessive boardroom pay.

Referring to the local elections last week, which delivered grim results for both the Tories and the Lib Dems, Miliband said the coalition had taken no notice of the voters' message: "They still don't get it."

He said voters deserted the coalition parties at last week's poll because they understood ministers' economic policy "only too well".

Miliband said that if Cameron's really "gets it", he would have dropped the plan to cut the 50p tax rate.

"They believe, they really believe, that their problems are not to do with policy, their problems are to do with public relations. They just don't get it. It's not the presentation of tax cuts for millionaires, it's the reality ? �40,000 for every millionaire in Britain.

"It's not the presentation of cuts in tax credits, it's the reality. The granny tax, the churches tax, the charities tax, the whole budget 'omnishambles'. It's not the presentation, it's the reality.

"Yes, they do have a communication problem, as the prime minister said this morning. The electorate have spoken but they're not listening."

Miliband also criticised Cameron for referring to cuts as "efficiency" savings. The Labour leader told MPs: "So here it is from the prime minister, Cameron Direct, to the hundreds of thousands of people being made redundant: 'The bad news is: you've lost your job. The good news is: you're a key part of our efficiency drive.' In two years, you have gone from David Cameron to David Brent. That's the reality."

The prime minister defended a programme that he said would reward "the do-ers, the strivers, those who work hard and play by the rules", and would help rebalance the economy.

He told MPs: "Let me say exactly what this Queen's speech is about. It is about a government taking the tough, long-term decisions to restore our country to strength. Dealing with the deficit, rebalancing the economy and building a society that rewards people who work hard and do the right thing."

Turning on Labour, Cameron said Miliband had almost nothing to suggest in terms of a costed, credible alternative.

"They have now had two years to work out what their alternative is and we heard absolutely nothing apart from a string of press releases. All across Europe, the countries being hit are the ones that don't have proper plans in place. In the last session, we cut the nation's overdraft ? the gap between what we tax and what we spend ? by �30bn. With this Queen's speech we continue that work."

On the controversial topic of Lords reform, Cameron told MPs it was included in the Queen's speech because while it was not the government's first priority, he believed parliament was capable of doing more than one thing at once.

But he said reforms would need support from across the house to proceed.

"At the last election, all political parties put forward in their manifestos proposals for a partly or mainly elected House of Lords. But let me say this: this is only going to proceed if the political parties will agree to work together and take a responsible attitude towards this reform. I think it is possible, it would be a good reform if we can achieve it, it would be better if we had a smaller House of Lords and it had an elected element in it. So I would ask people to work together across party lines to try and make that happen."

Labour's Jack Straw, who served as both home secretary and justice secretary and attempted his own reforms of the Lords when in government, urged the prime minister to consider calling a pre-legislative referendum to avoid a "trainwreck" to Commons business in light of the fact that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were "divided on this issue".

Cameron replied: "All parties are divided over this and we should be frank about that. We will only achieve reform if we work together."

H�l�ne Mulholland