Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, and Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, in responding to Ed Miliband's Labour conference speech said:
"The right-wing media seemed obsessed with Red Ed before the speech, but where did Green Ed go? Miliband talked about 'this new generation' but only briefly about what is key to the younger generation, a future where we seriously address climate change.
"Only at the very end of his speech did he address the environment. And given that he said that steps to protect our planet are 'the greatest challenge our generation faces,' it was disappointing that the speech contained absolutely no suggestions on how he plans to address that challenge.
"If Miliband wants not just a minimum wage, but a Living Wage, then Labour-run councils, as employers, up and down the country need to pay a living wage.
"People are right to be very angry over coalition cuts, and Ed was wrong to condemn unions and possible strikes over cutbacks to the public sector.
"Ed Miliband talked about families, children, and again and again, about a new generation. But one of the reasons why we included a £170 state pension in our manifesto was that we wanted a cross-generational approach to fighting inequality. It's one of the key challenges in the next decade to find a solution to care for our aging population.
"He praised the 'restless radicals,' Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, but their governments have left us with a public sector shackled to PFI debt. We need a commitment from Labour to transparency and public control in the councils they run.
"Finally, Ed Miliband's speech was an opportunity to endorse my idea of an amendment to the AV referendum bill to give the public the choice of a genuinely proportional system, but he did not. We need to have a more pluralist approach to voting reform, to offer to voters not just a choice between AV and first-past-the-post."