David Cameron takes positive tack with pledge on NHS

David Cameron will pledge on Saturday to spend at least £8bn per year extra on the health service by 2020 as he seeks a more positive election pitch.

The move comes at the end of a week of aggressive campaigning that has failed to break the deadlock in the polls.

The prime minister will promise the extra money to help fill the shortfall identified by Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, although Financial Times data this week suggested that it is likely to be higher than previously thought.

After the first full week of campaigning, the Tory leadership insists its uncompromising approach - which has seen Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, accusing Ed Miliband of being willing to "stab the UK in the back" - is working.

Some Conservatives MPs are expressing concerns about the party's direction, with few signs that it is erasing Labour's narrow poll lead. But most remain confident in the prediction by Lynton Crosby, the party's election strategist, of a late swing their way.

The attacks on their main targets - the character of Ed Miliband and the threat of the Scottish National party - were affecting the national conversation and having an impact, one cabinet minister told the Financial Times.

The party announced two new policies on Friday designed to have mass appeal: to encourage volunteering among workers and to freeze rail fares. These will be a key part of the party's manifesto, which is to focus on "security".

"It is about economic security, your job, your ability to buy a house, security in retirement," said one official.

The manifesto is expected to include plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold, with the aim of taking many people in "middle Britain" with modest properties out of the net. It will also include new initiatives to help people get on to the housing ladder.

The document, drawn up by Jo Johnson, the Tory minister and younger brother of the London mayor, is thought to have been redrafted to try to project a more optimistic tone.

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Mr Miliband travelled to Scotland for the first time in the campaign on Friday in an attempt to focus the debate there on the cuts he says would be needed under the SNP's plans for full control of fiscal policy.

The SNP did not care about "social justice", he said, and the party had a "totally different set of priorities compared to Labour". But several Labour MPs have told the FT they believe that there is little that can be done to stem the SNP tide.

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