Lord Maurice Glasman
Ed Miliband has received the backing of Lord Glasman (pictured) a week after the Labour peer criticised his leadership. IBTimes

Senior Labour Party figure Lord Maurice Glasman is backing Ed Miliband as the man to lead Britain into a new economic system, just a week after criticising his leadership of the party.

Lord Glasman had said Miliband's leadership looked like it has "no strategy, no narrative and little energy" in a New Statesman article on 5 January.

Miliband looks to Lord Glasman for political advice and considers him a close political ally.

Glasman took part in a debate outside the Financial Services Authority (FSA) building in Canary Wharf, put on by campaigners Occupy London, to discuss a new economic system and executive pay packets.

He outlined his view of a new system as "a market system ... a price-based system, but it's not going to be based on the commodification of ... human beings and nature."

Miliband made an important speech on 10 January, designed to be a re-launch of his image after a series of gaffes and criticisms - including Glasman's - brought his leadership into question.

Asked if he thinks Miliband is the right man to lead Labour in giving the public an alternative after the collapse of the current financial system, Glasman told the International Business Times UK: "I really do."

He said: "There was the clarification that responsible capitalism is the Labour Party's agenda.

"What's important about that is it's the first time Labour's been completely committed to private sector market growth as the absolute basis of what we've got to do."

Glasman added: "We need more private sector, more markets, but less speculative financial markets."

Outlining the future economic system, Glasman pushed the importance of worker involvement in the way companies are run.

"There's going to have to be a much stronger stress on issues like regional banks, vocational training, representation of the workforce in corporate governance, so we remember that it is both a competitive and co-operative enterprise," he said.

The peer also heaped praise on the Occupy London movement.

"I'm pretty amazed at their maturity and durability. What you can see today is that it's not them who are the nutters," he said.

"There's some very stable, reasonable people there. They've learnt a lot and what they're on the whole pushing for is a general new system of accountability within the financial system, which is absolutely necessary.

"So I'm actually really quite moved and impressed by them."

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