Ed Miliband: Labour promises four million conversations with voters to win general election

The Labour Party will promise to speak directly to four million voters in a bid to get the party elected in May.

The pledge, part of Labour's "long election campaign", is to be announced by Ed Miliband in Manchester later today (5 January).

The party leader is expected to say that Labour will win the 2015 General Election by "having millions of conversations".

"This year we will be making our case, explaining our vision, house by house, street by street, town by town," Miliband will say.

"And in every single one of those conversations, we will remind people of what is at stake, not speaking over people's heads but talking directly with them on their doorstep.

"I am going to be leading those conversations in village halls, community centres, workplaces right across the country, starting this very week and every week from now until the election."

He will add: "In every single one of those conversations, we will remind people of what is at stake, not speaking over people's heads with expensive poster campaigns, but talking directly with them on their doorstep."

The Labour leader is also expected to continue his "cost of living crisis" campaign and attack the Conservatives over their record on living standards, children's prospects, protecting public services and dealing with the nation's debt.

"This Tory experiment has been tried. And the verdict is in: the Tory experiment has failed. Theirs is not a record to run on. Theirs is a record to run from," Miliband will say.

But the Prime Minister David Cameron defended his government's record on the weekend and warned that Labour's spending plans would put the economy at risk.

"That is the difference between the two parties in what it would cost Britain if we went with Labour's plans," he told The Mail on Sunday.

"It's like going on a spending binge with a credit card and having absolutely no idea how you are going to meet the interest. That is what Labour are about.

"They have learnt absolutely nothing in the past five years. It's still more borrowing, more spending, more debt."

The latest opinion poll conducted by Opinium for The Observer, which surveyed more than 1,900 people, found that Labour had a one point lead over the Tories (33% vs 32%), with Ukip on 17%, the Liberal Democrats on 8% and the Greens on 4%.