Ed Miliband warns of 'cost of living crisis'

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, will warn today of a "cost of living crisis" that will leave middle-income earners struggling even if the economy recovers.

A report launched today is expected to claim that average pay will be no higher in 2015 than it was in 2003. Allowing for inflation, the Resolution Foundation suggests that the median wages of full-time employees will be £25,559 in 2015 – compared with £25,570 in 2003.

Mr Miliband will say this "sustained period of wage stagnation", coupled with the Government's spending cuts, will hit middle-income earners especially hard.

"My fear for those on middle and low incomes is that more and more families will face a cost of living crisis that will see them left behind, even as the economy eventually recovers," he will say, and that the Government is "hitting lower and middle-income families hardest in the way they are cutting the deficit".