Ed Miliband plans to switch voters on with cheap electricity Ed Miliband's move on electricity is designed to show that the Labour party is focused on more than just winning elections. Labour is considering organising the bulk purchase of cheap electricity to sell at a discount in a move designed to help squeezed households and show that the party is focused on more than just winning elections, Ed Miliband has told the Guardian. The initiative is being studied by the Labour leader after being urged on the party by the American community activist Arnie Graf, who is advising him on how to revitalise the party's culture. Miliband said: "It is an outstanding idea. It might involve working with, or emulating what [the activist organisation] 38 degrees and Which? magazine are trying to do, which is to sign up people to bulk buy energy from the energy companies. We are thinking of going to the energy companies as the Labour party so that 'responsible capitalism' is not just an idea, but something practical. We think we may be able to deliver it through our grassroots network. Party sources said the planning was at a preliminary stage, but the idea of collective purchasing is that the buyer has greater leverage and can so secure a better deal for its customers. In Belgium the Labour party has teamed up with ichoosr to become the country's largest switching service, helping to cut energy bills for thousands of people. Labour recruits members and constituents to the scheme and then once a threshold is passed ichosr does the mechanics of the negotiations with the energy firms, party sources said. In the UK, according to the energy regulator Ofgem, 60% of consumers have never switched their energy supplier. Miliband, enjoying a Labour poll surge, said in an interview with the Guardian that last month's budget had ended the Cameron modernising project, but he was acutely aware that the predominant mood in the country is alienation from all politics. He said: "The party needs to prove it has changed and will change more by operating in communities offering practical help, as well as political campaigns." He said he was increasingly alarmed by the way in which established parties were perceived to have lost touch with local communities, citing the shock Labour byelection defeat in Bradford West. Too many people believe all politicians and all parties are the same, he said. In the Bradford West by election the most worrying statistic was that half the people registered to vote failed to do so. Politics has to change and Labour is changing so we reach out to the voters who have been written off as unreachable or feel they have been ignored for too long.