Miliband backs mansion tax and 10p rate Ed Miliband on Thursday backed a £2bn mansion tax, vowing to redistribute the cash to the "squeezed middle" through the reintroduction of a 10p tax band. The announcement is the boldest policy move since Mr Miliband became Labour leader in 2010, highlighting his aim to redistribute wealth from the top. Speaking in Bedford, Mr Miliband claimed that "living standards" would be the defining issue at the next election and that Labour would side with hard working families. The mansion tax levy on homes worth more than £2m is lifted directly from the last Liberal Democrat manifesto and will be seen as an overture to Nick Clegg's party. The revenue raised would pay for a modest reintroduction of the 10p starter tax band abolished by then chancellor Gordon Brown in 2007. To fully reintroduce the band at 2007 levels would cost up to £7bn. But Mr Miliband's plan would see the band apply initially to earnings of about £1000 above the personal allowance, which is rising towards £10,000, at a cost of £2bn. The Labour leader acknowledged that Mr Brown was wrong to abolish the 10p rate. George Osborne, chancellor, is being urged by some Conservative MPs to commit to restoring the band. Mr Miliband, speaking at the venue of Harold Macmillan's 1957 "never had it so good" speech, will claim Britain's working families were now seeing their living standards drop. Labour aides say the new policy is not a firm manifesto pledge, but it would be hard politically for Mr Miliband to drop it.