LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Britain's new opposition leader Ed Miliband said on Sunday he supported "cautious" cuts in the budget deficit, saying government plans for spending cuts were economically dangerous and could inflict huge damage on society.
Miliband, who beat his older brother David by a wafer-thin margin in an election to lead the Labour Party on Saturday, also called for higher taxes on banks and said the former Labour government's backing for deregulation of banks had been wrong.
Miliband, a former cabinet minister, said he accepted the need for some cuts in public spending.
He said he saw the proposal on which Labour fought and lost the May election -- to halve Britain's record peacetime deficit in four years -- as a "starting point" but indicated he would give more of a role to tax rises rather than spending cuts.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, which took office in May, ending 13 years of Labour rule, has gone much farther than Labour, setting out plans to virtually eliminate the deficit by 2015.
The coalition's plans were "economically dangerous and there are warning signals in our economy," Miliband said, adding he did not agree with Prime Minister David Cameron that the Britain was out of the danger zone.
"They (the coalition) want to say the only thing that matters in our society is to eliminate the structural deficit over the next four years," Miliband said in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr. "I don't agree with that because ... that will inflict huge damage on our communities."
"Deficit reduction 'yes', but at a cautious pace and in a way that is going to help our economy not hinder it," he said.
Asked about former Labour finance minister Alistair Darling's plan to cut the deficit in half over four years, Miliband said: "Broadly I think it is the right starting point. I am not going to oppose every cut that the coalition comes up with ... It wouldn't be responsible and it wouldn't be credible to say we oppose every cut ... I will look at each of their proposals on its merits."
"As far as Alistair Darling's plan is concerned, I think we should keep looking at that perhaps to see how we can improve it, so for example, I think we can do more on taxation from the banks," he said.
"There will have to be reductions in public spending ... Alistair Darling's plan is our starting point as to the timing of the deficit reduction," he said.
"Why is that important to take more from the banks? They caused the crisis, but also the government should be doing everything it can to protect people up and down this country who are relying on public services ...," he said.
Deregulation advocated by the former Labour government was "absolutely not the answer" for the banking system, he said.
"Now we've got to be reformers of the banking system, big reformers, and that is going to require a role for government in my view." (Reporting by Adrian Croft, Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Louise Heavens)