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Labour leader Ed Miliband: "I am absolutely determined change will happen"
Ed Miliband has urged unions to have "the courage to change", as he attempts to persuade them to back an overhaul of the way Labour is funded.
Several unions have attacked the Labour leader over his plans to remove the automatic payment of fees by millions of their members to the party.
But Mr Miliband told the TUC that this "historic" change would strengthen his chances at the general election.
He also predicted Labour's membership could swell to more than 500,000.
Mr Miliband and several union leaders have disagreed during this week's annual TUC meeting in Bournemouth about his plans to change the way the party's funding works.
He wants to abolish the automatic affiliation fee paid each year by about three million union members to Labour.
'My vision'Instead he proposes giving people the choice of "opting in" - becoming full Labour members - when they join a Labour-supporting union.
Mr Miliband acknowledges this will cost money, but argues it will expand his party and increase activism.
One union leader accused him of "living in cloud cuckoo land", while others have also voiced concerns.
The proposed changes follow a row over allegations that the Unite union tried to rig the Labour choice of a candidate for the Falkirk seat at the next general election. An investigation by Labour has found no evidence of wrongdoing, emboldening his critics.
Ahead of his speech, Mr Miliband told ITV's Daybreak "we are going to get these changes through", adding that Labour's internal structures were "old-fashioned" and had to change.
"Start Quote
End Quote Ed MilibandWe need to build a party truly rooted in the lives of all the working people of Britain once more"
In his speech delivered to a largely quiet audience, he said: "We have three million working men and women affiliated to our party. But the vast majority play no role in our party.
"They are affiliated in name only. That wasn't the vision of the founders of our party. I don't think it's your vision either. And it's certainly not my vision.
"That's why I want to make each and every affiliated trade union member a real part of their local party, making a real choice to be a part of our party so they can have a real voice in it."
Mr Miliband added: "This is an historic opportunity to begin bringing people back into the decisions which affect their lives.
"It means we could become a Labour Party not of 200,000 people, but 500,000, or many more. A party rooted in every kind of workplace in the country, a party rooted in every community in the country, a genuine living, breathing movement."
'Right thing to do'The Labour leader called his plan a "massive challenge" but said: "It is you who have been telling me year after year about a politics that is detached from the lives of working people. We need to build a party truly rooted in the lives of all the working people of Britain once more.
"That's why we must have the courage to change. I respect those who worry about change. I understand. But I disagree. It is the right thing to do.
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Dave Prentis: "Where I was brought up... you were always taught never wash your dirty linen in public"
During his speech, Mr Miliband attacked the Conservatives, accusing David Cameron of showing "contempt" for working people.
He said: "We have a prime minister who writes you and your members off, who doesn't just write you off, but oozes contempt for you from every pore. What does he say about you? He says your members are a 'threat to our economy'. Back to 'the enemy within'.
"Six and a half million people in Britain who teach our children, who look after the sick, who care for the elderly, who build our homes, who keep our shops open morning, noon and night. They're not the enemy within. They're the people who make Britain what it is.
"How dare he? How dare he insult people, members of trades unions as he does? How dare he write off whole sections of our society?"
Dinner speechMr Miliband repeated the slogan he first used at last year's Labour conference, of his party being the UK's "one nation party".
"Start Quote
End Quote Len McCluskey Unite general secretaryOur Labour leadership has to start demonstrating they are on the side of ordinary working people"
But he faces a difficult task to persuade leaders of several of the major unions that his proposed changes are justified.
Dave Prentis of Unison said Labour had to "get its act together" or face disaster at the next election.
Paul Kenny of the GMB - which has cut its funding for the party by £1.2m a year - mocked the plans as looking as if they had been made up "after a night out".
However, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said that, despite his union's row over the Falkirk selection, that Mr Miliband's plan would "strengthen" the party and unions.
But he warned at fringe meeting: "Our Labour leadership has to start demonstrating they are on the side of ordinary working people."
And the TUC general secretary, Frances O'Grady, used her speech to the Congress on Monday to ask union activists to "roll up their sleeves" and influence Labour's policies, while opposing the Conservatives.
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