Miliband's higher tax plan for banks

He promised yesterday to do more to protect regular households and suggested the bank levy was a "prime way" of doing that.

Mr Miliband also warned that David Cameron and George Osborne were being "increasingly cavalier" with the economy and ignoring warning signals such as last month's dip in house prices.

Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson signalled yesterday he was ready to scale back Labour's plans for reducing the deficit if economic conditions worsened.

He said he wanted to stick to former Chancellor Alistair Darling's plan to halve the deficit over four years – "if economic conditions allow".

Mr Miliband, speaking on BBC1's The Politics Show, said Mr Darling's strategy was "a starting point".

He promised more details about Labour's plans before the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review on October 20, but said he wanted to do more to help families.

"If we can get more, for example, from the banks, in a higher bank levy, to protect ordinary families – like on child benefit, like on public services – we should do so," he said.

"Because frankly it wasn't middle class families in this country that caused the crisis. It was the banking community."

He said there would be no tax rises beyond those planned for "ordinary families".

The bank levy, applied to the balance sheets of UK banks and building societies and the British operations of foreign banks, was introduced by Chancellor George Osborne. It is expected to raise between 2bn and 2.5bn a year.

Mr Miliband also claimed that the coalition's cuts package, of about 25 per cent over four years, presented a "real threat to our economy".

He said that institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the OECD, which have both backed the coalition's plans, had been "wrong in the past".