Labour Leader Tries to Energize Party for Next Election Pool photo by Stefan Rousseau Ed Miliband, Britain's opposition leader, and his wife, Justine, on Tuesday in Brighton before his speech at his party's conference. BRIGHTON, England - Hoping to woo disillusioned voters after three years in the opposition, Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, promised on Tuesday to freeze energy bills and cut taxes on small companies by squeezing more from big business. Speaking without notes for an hour at his party's annual conference, Mr. Miliband addressed criticism of his leadership and attacked the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, saying that it would channel the fruits of Britain's nascent economic recovery to the rich. Mr. Miliband has had a difficult few weeks. He failed to capitalize on a parliamentary defeat that Mr. Cameron suffered over intervening in Syria, and found himself damaged by association when a former Labour political operative published a tell-all memoir about skulduggery and infighting during the last Labour government. But his speech on Tuesday injected some energy into what had been a low-key Labour conference, with less than two years to go until the next general election. Mr. Miliband said he would relish a debate with Mr. Cameron about leadership and character. Mr. Cameron and his Conservatives, Mr. Miliband said, would engineer a "recovery for the few," not for the majority of Britons. "They used to say, "A rising tide lifts all boats," " he said. Now the rising tide just seems to lift yachts. Perhaps the biggest task confronting Mr. Miliband is to persuade voters who seem to blame the last Labour government, as much as the current center-right coalition, for unpopular austerity measures in Britain. In addition to a temporary freeze on energy prices to help budget-strapped consumers, he promised to spur construction of 200,000 homes a year and to expand child care, financed by a tax increase on banks. General corporate taxes, however, would be cut, he said. But trying to align Labour with small business rather than banks and big corporations, Mr. Miliband drew a negative reaction from the country's largest business lobby, the Confederation of British Industry. "Businesses will view the proposals on tax and energy as a setback for Labour's pro-enterprise credentials," said John Cridland, the group's director general. Opinion polls rate Mr. Miliband as less popular than his party, in part because he gained the party leadership by challenging and defeating his elder brother, David, in 2010. Mr. Miliband presented that on Tuesday as an act of leadership, saying it was "really hard for my family." And he managed a joke about his public image, recounting an encounter with a voter who said he was "not geeky at all."