The Labour leader put Aneurin Bevan’s baby top of his six-point plan to “rebuild Britain together” by 2025 in his final conference speech before the general election.

He pledged to fund 20,000 nurses, 8,000 GPs, 5,000 care workers and 3,000 more midwives for the stretched service.

And he said Labour would raise the cash by taxing mansions and tobacco firms.

“The NHS is sliding backwards under this government,” Mr Miliband told the packed conference hall.

“It is privatising and fragmenting it. Just think what it would look like after five more years of this government. It is not safe in its hands.

“We built the NHS. We saved the NHS.

“We will repeal their Health and Social Care Bill and we will transform the NHS for the future.”

Over a billion would be raised through a mansion tax, £150 million smoked out of tobacco firms and £2.5 billion more would be raised in a crackdown on tax avoiders.

Although Mr Miliband made clear Labour will not “borrow a penny” or raise income tax.

A Keep Our NHS Public spokeswoman predicted that would mean overall NHS spending would still fall short.

But Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said the commitment showed the NHS was only safe in Labour’s hands.

Mr McCluskey said: “He gave hope to those increasingly worried about the soaring NHS waiting lists and what’s going to happen to Bevan’s creation if the speculators of the private healthcare industry take over.”

In the hall where he was declared Labour leader four years earlier, Mr Miliband delivered a confident speech which styled the next eight months as his job interview before the British public.

He compared his offer of “rebuilding Britain together” with the “you’re on your own” attitude of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron.

Turning on Tory ideology, he said: “They say they don’t believe in government intervention. Really? Of course they do.

“Because if you’re a millionaire who wants a tax cut, you’re not going to be on your own.”

Labour manifesto commitments to halve the number of low-paid workers and double house building by 2025 were also unveiled.

Unison leader Dave Prentis said it was now clear exactly what a Labour government can deliver.

He commented: “We needed to hear from Ed what he would do as prime minister to tackle austerity and to change people’s lives for the better. We got that today.”

Mr Miliband defended his 10-year policy delivery target as an antidote to the broken promises made by the likes of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady praised his approach as “ambitious but believable.”

“This was a speech that spoke to the real problems and worries of working people — jobs, living standards, homes and a secure future for the NHS,” she said.

“It is exactly the way to reconnect politics to voters.”

lukejames@peoples-press.com