David Cameron says Tories can still win majority

David Cameron insisted the Conservative party was capable of winning an outright majority in May's general election, warning that a hung parliament would result in "economic chaos".

In a series of media interviews on Tuesday morning, the prime minister underlined the theme of "competence versus chaos" claiming that Labour would raise taxes and increase welfare spending as he attempted to keep the focus on the choice between him and Ed Miliband as leader.

"We can form a majority government if the British people back us," he said in an interview with Sky News, adding that the public would value the greater accountability it brings as "nothing gets haggled away in backroom deals".

Ahead of what is expected to be the tightest British general election in a generation, when asked if he was in talks with other parties about forming a second coalition, Mr Cameron replied: "I barely have time to talk with my wife, let alone anyone else," adding that he would work "flat out" for the next 37 days to win a majority.

Claiming that the Tories' long-term economic plan would create 2m jobs in the next parliament, Mr Cameron was forced to defend the future funding of the NHS and his continued refusal to outline where £12bn of welfare cuts would fall.

"We need two more years of saving £1 in every £100 the government spends and we'll do that instead of putting up people's taxes," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in a separate interview on Tuesday.

On Monday, the party claimed that a Labour government would impose tax rises of £3,000 on the average working family in the next parliament - a figure that has been disputed by Labour and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Mr Cameron stood by the calculation, saying that Labour "haven't even got to base camp" in explaining how their manifesto pledges would be funded, and therefore "that must mean higher taxes".

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>The Tories have pledged to cut £13bn from departmental spending, £12bn from welfare and to raise £5bn from closing tax avoidance loopholes in the next parliament.

The party has already said £2bn of the £12bn welfare savings will come from freezing in-work benefits and a £3,000 cut to the welfare cap, but Mr Cameron was elusive on where the remaining £10bn would come from.

He also identified efficiency savings from the roll out of Universal Credit and a drive to get young school leavers "earning or learning" with millions of apprenticeships.

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Funding the NHS is a key election theme. The Lib Dems on Tuesday committed to the extra £8bn a year NHS England's chief executive Simon Stevens said was needed.

Mr Cameron told the BBC he was "confident" of funding the Stevens plan in full, but stopped short of committing to the £8bn a year figure.

Following a pledge to find an extra £2bn in the recent Budget, he said the Stevens plan could be met by "extra spending combined with efficiencies" without defining the level of either, adding this would be detailed in the forthcoming Tory manifesto.

The prime minister reserved a few barbs for the Scottish National Party, firmly ruling out any co-operation in the event of not securing a majority victory.

"A hung parliament with Nicola Sturgeon making demands for higher taxes would lead to economic chaos," he told the BBC, vowing that he would come to "no agreement" to form a government with the SNP "as they want to break up our country."

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