Ed Miliband has told Labour faithful in Shropshire that he is the man to lead their party and challenge the Tory-Lib Dem coalition Government. He expressed his fears over the impact of current spending cuts.

Mr Miliband was in the county yesterday for brief discussions with constituency party members before appearing on last night’s Any Questions debate on Radio 4, which was staged in Burton upon Trent.

The 40-year-old, who is vying for the Labour leadership with his brother David, Ed Balls and Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham, called in at Morris Hall, Shrewsbury, before going on to Telford to meet MP David Wright and answer questions at AFC Telford Learning Centre.

He told the Shropshire Star that he was prepared to work with Tory-controlled Telford & Wrekin Council or any other authority in the country.

He added, however: “I’m very worried about the impact of the cuts this coalition government is making on authorities up and down the country and in local communities.

“I hope people will be as protected as possible, including here in Telford, but I think from the scale of cuts they are talking about there will be very few people who are spared from the impact.

“For Labour, I think the task is we have got to be a strong opposition taking on the government.

“We have also got to change as a political party. We have got to recognise how we lost the last election.

“We lost the election because, I think, we lost touch with people.

“I understand the change we need to win back our working class and middle class support, to show we can change in key aspects or our policy, like low pay and tuition fees, and to change the way our party works, reaching out to trade unionists and party members.”

Mr Miliband said Labour could not take any part of the electorate for granted and had to appeal to all sections of the community.

He added: “I think that too often at times New Labour looked like it was taking our working class support for granted.”

Mr Miliband also called on banks to take responsibility for their employees in the wake of the decision by the Royal Bank of Scotland to axe 500 jobs in Telford.

Speaking during his visit to Wellington, Mr Miliband said there was a need for banking reform and blamed the Government for not sustaining the economy and looking after the jobless.

Mr Miliband’s visit came 24 hours after RBS announced it was to close its Credit Management Services Office in Ironmasters Way, Telford, in the next two years.

Mr Miliband said: “We need banks to understand their responsibilities because some of these banks are paying themselves big bonuses or high salaries and they have got a responsibility to the people who work for them.”

By Simon Hardy