Ed Miliband: Labour 'can make your family better off'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27499671

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Only Labour offers "real, practical changes that can make your family better off", Ed Miliband has said.

As campaigning in the local and EU elections draws to a close, Mr Miliband is making a final push for votes.

During a visit to Covent Garden, he told the BBC that the party would bring the cost of childcare and renting down, and push the minimum wage up.

A YouGov poll for The Sun suggests Labour and UKIP are neck and neck on 27%, with the Conservatives on 23%.

There are elections across the UK to the European Parliament on Thursday and elections to 161 councils in England and 11 in Northern Ireland. Voting takes place from 07:00 BST to 22:00 BST.

Mr Miliband also highlighted his party's pledges to freeze energy bills, build more homes, ban zero-hours contracts, cut business rates, and introduce a "job guarantee" for young people.

He also took to social media website Twitter to emphasise his commitment to "stand up for renters" and deliver a "fairer deal" for private sector tenants - which was the the centrepiece of Labour's May Day campaign launch.

"Labour will make big changes to the minimum wage - making sure that all workers get decent pay for a hard day's work," he added.

As well as fielding a full slate of candidates in every electoral region in Britain for the European Parliament, Labour is also contesting seats on local authorities across England.

At the elections to the European Parliament in 2009, Labour came third with 2,381,760 votes, behind the Conservatives and UKIP.

This won them 13 of the 72 parliamentary seats available to the UK in 2009 - the same number as UKIP, which took 2,498,226 votes - and was down five seats on their tally in the previous elections in 2004.

The Conservatives won 4,198,394 votes in 2009 - enough for 26 parliamentary seats.