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THE hated bedroom tax will be axed if Labour win power, Ed Miliband pledged last night.

Miliband vowed to ditch the brutal Tory policy, which the Daily Record is campaigning against.

Speaking at the start of Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, Miliband points out that half of the 660,000 families hit by the tax across Britain include somebody who is disabled.

The Tories do not care because they are only interested in the rich, the Labour leader said.

And he added: “I am leading a different Labour Party, a one-nation Labour Party, which listens to and will stand up for ordinary families.

“The bedroom tax – not what the Tories call the spare room subsidy – the bedroom tax, is a symbol of an out of touch, uncaring Tory Government that stands up for the privileged few but never for you.

“So we will scrap that tax.”

Miliband queried whether the policy will save the £500million that Tory and Lib Dem ministers claim.

But he said that any cost will be covered by closing tax breaks for City spivs rather than increasing Government borrowing.

Chancellor George Osborne handed hedge funds a £150million tax stamp duty holiday in his last Budget.

That would be reversed by Labour and the party will also scrap Osborne’s pet scheme that lets people swap employment rights for shares, a wheeze that has opened up a £1billion tax loophole.

Miliband and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls would also tackle tax scams in the construction industry which cost taxpayers £500million.

The Labour leader’s pledge to scrap the bedroom tax comes at the start of a conference where he will focus on the cost of living crisis and how Labour would help struggling families.

Miliband said: “One-nation Labour is meeting here in Brighton talking about the most important issue facing families in Britain: the cost of living crisis.

“Under David Cameron life is getting harder and harder with prices rising faster than wages in 38 of the 39 months that he has been in Downing Street.

“And working people are an average of almost £1500 a year worse off under his Government.

“But we have a Tory-led Government which listens to only a privileged few.

“Tax cuts for millionaires and tax breaks for hedge funds.

“We’ll scrap the bedroom tax by abolishing the shady schemes of tax loopholes for the privileged few which the Tories keep inventing.

“I’m determined that Labour will stand up for the 80,000 people in Scotland alone – most of whom are disabled – who are being asked to pay an average of £624 a year.

“The Daily Record has done some great campaigning journalism to expose the cruelty and injustice of the bedroom tax.

“And if Scottish Labour was in power now, the Scottish Parliament would be able to protect victims of the bedroom tax.

“Unfortunately John Swinney has said he won’t protect them. And that’s because he cynically wants to keep Scots ‘on the hook’ ahead of the referendum. But Labour will scrap the bedroom tax.”

Scottish Labour Leader Johann Lamont said: “It’s now clear that the quickest way to abolish the bedroom tax is to elect a Labour government in 2015.”

SNP MSP Annabelle Ewing predicted Labour would break the promise once in power.

She added: “The only way for Scotland to get rid of the bedroom tax is with a Yes vote next year.”

The bold policy will be attacked by the Tories but a new poll showed that it will be a winner with voters yesterday.

Almost three out of five voters, 59 per cent, want to see the bedroom tax binned, pollsters ComRes found.

That includes five in six potential Labour voters, 83 per cent, along with two thirds – 65 per cent - of potential Lib Dem supporters and even a third of people who intend to vote Tory.

The findings come after the United Nations called on ministers to axe the policy after the Record presented a dossier – highlighting the terrible impact it is having on Scots – to their housing inspector Raquel Rolnik.

Research this week revealed that about half of families affected have fallen behind with their rent since it was introduced in April, with one in four in arrears for the first time.

Families in social housing lost 14 per cent of their housing benefit if they had a spare room and 25 per cent if they had two in changes that leave them having to find an average of £14 a week more in rent.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was savaged for backing the tax on a radio phone-in yesterday. The Lib Dem leader’s announcement that all infant school pupils will get free school lunches will cost £600million, just a little more than the bedroom tax is supposed to save.

Caller Brenda, from Putney, south-west London, stormed: “I think it’s total nonsense and it’s very ironic coming from a bunch of people over there in Parliament who have got loads of spare rooms.”