Ed Miliband's speeches to conference in his first three years as leader have been most effective when he has put forward a strong moral case.

At a time when there is so little money to promise lavish spending, he has focused on an older, maybe more fundamental basis of socialism - setting Labour on the side of the weak and powerless against the might of the entrenched interests and the Establishment.

He has rightly sought to capture the mood and attention of the public by challenging institutions that have grown remote and unaccountable - in the banks, in the media, in the political class itself.

But there is one glaring omission.

If Miliband's vision is for us as a Labour Party to be taking on these powerful interests, he cannot ignore the one that has become ever more central to our lives and the laws that Parliament is able to pass - the European Union.

So this year I want to see him talk about the EU and particularly the need for a referendum on our future relationship with it.

He would not be the first reforming Labour leader to use his conference speech to deliver some hard truths about Europe.

In 1962 Hugh Gaitskell famously decried the possibility of entering the EEC as "the end of Britain as an independent European state. It means the end of 1,000 years of history."

Not because he was a little Englander but because he did not want to see Britain's attention and influence distracted to this one half of a continent - he wanted us look to and trade with the whole world.

And the case is even stronger today than it was 50 years ago.

Then the European nations were enjoying decades of strong growth and made an appealing market. Now they are a declining, ageing part of the world.

Gaitskell warned against ignoring our historic ties with the Commonwealth. By 2050 the 55 members of the Commonwealth will have 38 per cent of the global labour force, while the EU, with its 27 members, will have only 5 per cent.

We must not pigeonhole ourselves as little Europeans.

But Miliband shouldn't be making this case simply to boost our trade.

Our membership of the EU inhibits us from doing all kinds of things that those of us on the left would like to see.

How can we protect civil liberties when the EU forces on us unaccountable extraditions through the European Arrest Warrant?

How can we ensure the jobs and growth that we need when vital contracts for work go to preferred bidders on the continent and not to British firms?

How can we preserve and improve our public services when the services directives help to force the privatisation of the Royal Mail, and EU rules against state aid act to stop us renationalising the railways?

Miliband should remind conference that it was a Labour government which gave the British people their first chance to vote on membership of the then common market and pledge that a Labour government will now give the British people the chance to finally have a say on whether continued membership is right for our nation.

I want the leader of my party to trust the British people.

I want him to admit that the institution we joined has changed utterly and keeps changing.

I want him to admit that the elite running the EU will never be satisfied until they get the full integration of all the EU countries that they have planned for decades, regardless of the damage that this has so clearly done to weak nations across the continent.

I want him to condemn European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso - elected by not one single voter in Europe - for his recent outrageous remarks accusing those who wish to stop ever-closer union of jeopardising peace.

I want him to acknowledge that the EU has become a vast, bureaucratic, unaccountable empire whose remit runs way beyond policing the common market.

I want him to remind the British people just how much we pay for our membership and how much more we could do with that money ourselves.

This year alone we're giving the EU a net figure of £7.3 billion, which could be so much better used to support our public services.

I want him to say all of these things not because they will win him applause in the conference hall but because they are true and reflect the views of millions of Labour voters across the country.

I want him to stand up to this, the biggest and least accountable power source of all, and simply declare: "We will let the people have their say."

Kate Hoey is Labour MP for Vauxhall