Hollande takes campaign to London Francois Hollande, the Socialist candidate vying for the French presidency, drew praise from British Labour opposition leader Ed Miliband as he called during a visit to London on Wednesday for the financial industry to serve the economy, "not enrich itself." "I wanted to come here to London to say that finance must be in the service of the economy to create wealth and not to enrich itself on the real economy," Mr Hollande said. At a joint press conference, Mr Miliband said he was "very, very impressed by the lead Francois Hollande has shown" on the issue of cracking down on the financial world, which the Socialist leader has called his "true adversary." "Regulating finance is a very serious problem," Mr Miliband said. What Francois has been talking about - the way we need to reform the way finance works, the way we need to reform the way capitalism works - is absolutely right. But Mr Miliband stopped short of backing Mr Hollande's latest proposal to levy a marginal tax rate of 75 per cent on incomes of more than €1m, saying the Labour party was committed not to go beyond the current 50 per cent level in place in the UK. We share a commitment to progressive tax, but different countries have different systems and that is always going to be the case. Mr Hollande, who avoided any meetings in the City during his trip, said his proposal was intended to persuade companies to limit pay awards at what he called "a very difficult time for our country." His aides have admitted that the tax would affect only about 3,500 people and raise only about €250m a year. "I want to signal to the biggest companies before they pay out remuneration of more than €1m that there is a need to take into account social reality," Mr Hollande said. Mr Hollande and Mr Miliband emphasised the importance of stimulating growth in Europe, echoing the growing concerns among left of centre parties that the German-led focus on fiscal austerity as the primary solution to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis was insufficient. Mr Hollande has called for the new European fiscal discipline Treaty, due to be signed by eurozone leaders on Friday at a summit in Brussels, to be re- opened to inject measures to promote growth. The Socialist challenger, currently leading President Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls ahead of the first round of the election on April 22, was also set to meet some of the 300,000 strong French expatriate community in London during visit, seeking their votes. He was met outside St Pancras station when he arrived from Paris by a noisy group of Socialist party supporters chanting "Francois, president." But he was also briefly heckled by a smartly suited French businessman who called out: "You are not a liberal."