ED MILIBAND vowed to end Britain’s obsession with “fast-buck wealth creation” after a week of mudslinging between the Labour leader and big business.

Launching his new “modern industrial strategy” at a Wolverhampton car factory, Mr Miliband promised that he would guarantee apprenticeships for all school leavers who made the grade.

But Mr Miliband, who has faced a concerted attack from opponents for being “anti-business,” insisted he was “pro-business but not pro-business as usual” in a stinging soundbite.

Mr Miliband said Labour would compel firms that won government contracts and every firm that recruits outside the EU to deliver apprenticeships.

Thousands of the new posts would be provided in the public sector.

“Some people believe that the old way of wealth creation is working for Britain,” he told workers at Jaguar Land Rover.

“I don’t agree. Too often we have mistaken short-term, fast-buck wealth creation, for long-term, sustainable prosperity.

“Too often we’ve been a country which values hedge funds more than manufacturing, that rewards speculation not long-term investment, that privileges consuming today not investing for tomorrow.”

The announcement was welcomed by general union Unite.

Unite manufacturing head Tony Burke turned fire on the Con-Dems for creating a “path to poverty” through failing to invest in manufacturing.

“This short-term race to the bottom will not develop the UK’s manufacturing base or create the skills and innovation our economy needs to rise to the global challenges of the 21st century,” he said.

“The success of the UK’s automotive industry and companies like Jaguar Land Rover is because they have looked to the long-term, invested in skills and worked with Unite to boost productivity and create secure well paid jobs.

He said the new package from Labour “looks to the long-term to generate the high-skilled, secure jobs our nation needs and ensures that we have an economy that works for the many not the few.”

And lecturers’ union UCU welcomed the apprenticeships plan.

“We believe it is time to look at a radical overhaul of what constitutes an apprenticeship and explore the idea of longer courses to ensure apprentices receive a more rounded education, and fair pay,” said general secretary Sally Hunt.

Apprentices aged 16 to 18 and in their first year of work are only entitled to £2.73 an hour — compared to the £6.50 minimum wage for over-21s.

Ukip economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn claimed that Mr Miliband was advocating Soviet-style planning.

“It will not be done with Soviet-style tractor production targets for every firm, as he appeared to propose today,” he said.

Miliband on industry – a shift from Blair’s poisoned legacy

AFTER a final showdown in the Sunday papers, it seems the latest spat over tax avoidance and party funding is over — for now.

Once again, we saw the Ed Miliband we’re used to — less radical than he thinks he is, a little gaffe-prone, but often up for an admirable fight with what he calls “vested interests.”

But it wasn’t so long ago he was the outsider on whom many leftwingers pinned their hopes. I was never one of them — but there’s no denying his brother David would have also been pilloried for being weird and wonkish, and served up a bit of reheated Blairism to boot.

As Michael Meacher said shortly after, the face-off “wasn’t so much about Ed winning but David losing.”

In the midst of the 2010 leadership tussle, Ed was cross-examined at his own Haverstock comprehensive.

Asked what he would do for British towns ravaged by deindustrialisation, Miliband said he would start by reversing new Labour’s complete lack of “industrial strategy.”

All rather vague, but he’d hit on something. Under Blair and Brown, talking about state intervention to promote industry was as anathematic as talking about income inequality or public ownership.

After all, that would require an acknowledgment that Britain’s slide towards dependence on the City and financial services was something to regret.

But yesterday that long-awaited strategy arrived at last. Half the new apprenticeships will be funded by the party’s existing youth jobs guarantee — which is probably cheaper now so many will be on less than the minimum wage.

Hardly revolutionary stuff. But baffling as he may sometimes be, there’s no doubt this Labour leader has shifted the terms of debate.