Shortly before Gordon Brown’s announcement that there will be no general election in the near future, TMP editor, Chuka Umunna, caught up with Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Ed Miliband MP.
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CU: Going forward, what do you see as the major challenges for Labour in terms of what it has yet to achieve after 10 years in government?

EM: I think there are a whole range of challenges. There are challenges where we have made progress since 1997 – such as those around some of the public services, creating a fairer society more generally- and we need to make more progress on them.

And then there are new challenges which, in a way, were not so apparent 10 years ago. Something I’ve campaigned a lot on is youth services – services for young people are a big issue in every constituency I go to. Work/life balance and having a voice over the things that matter over one’s life are also issues. Take young people, one of the things we have given young people control over is the ability to control local youth budgets and so on. But there is a lot further to go in all these areas.

So its about meeting the existing challenges where we have made progress and confronting the new challenges our country faces.

CU: With regard to youth provision, Gordon Brown has announced that £670million will be taken from dormant bank accounts for the purposes of youth provision – how are you going to use that money?

EM: The detail will be fleshed out. I think it will be money which will be channelled to local authorities but they will have to put in relatively innovative bids which involve the voluntary sector, which bring in all kinds of partners. There has been a consultation document issued but we are also talking to young people to find out the kinds of services they want. What I know is that this is an area we need to make lots of progress on.

I think the other thing is that there is a wider issue about the voice of young people in society and I feel a bit like we are where we were with issues around women 10 or 20 years ago – which is that public policy is quite behind where the population is. Young people want a voice, they want a say, they don’t just want to have things done to them and I think public policy needs to catch up.

CU: On the poverty issue, Gordon Brown has reaffirmed the commitment to abolish child poverty – is that possible when you look at a place like Sweden which still has 5% poverty across the board?

EM: I think we want to be amongst the world’s best; I think that is possible but its going to take resources, its going to take effort and its going to take innovative thinking – we’ve got to do all those things.

CU: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies say that meeting the target of halving child poverty by 2010 will involve spending around £4.5bn extra in benefits and tax credits every year. Do you agree?

EM: The truth is there are different figures around. It will depend on how many people you can get back into work. If you can get more people back into work then the figures will make a difference but obviously it will require investment.

CU: Black and minority community and voluntary organisations are struggling to get funds. What is the government doing about this?

EM: We are looking across the voluntary sector at more stable funding. But I also think there is a job to be done in hearing better the voice of the BME voluntary sector and understanding what their specific issues are – whether they are the same as other organisations in the voluntary sector or whether they are different.

Ed Miliband is responsible for helping to coordinate work across government, and leads the government’s efforts to tackle social exclusion, support the third sector and coordinate the improvement of public services. From 2006 to 2007 he was Minister for the Third Sector, supporting charities, social enterprises and community organisations. He was elected Labour MP for Doncaster North in May 2005.