Conservatives aim for policies that can be sold on the doorstep

David Cameron on Tuesday offered the British people a glimpse of the "good life" after five years of economic pain, at the launch of a Conservative manifesto that saw the prime minister make an abrupt break with austerity.

After months of relentless focus on the economy and leadership, Mr Cameron unveiled the manifesto with a more optimistic tone, pleading with voters: "We have come this far together: let's not waste the past five years."

With Conservatives and Labour deadlocked in the polls, Mr Cameron made a series of unfunded promises to voters to underpin his claim that better times are around the corner, including £8bn extra spending on the NHS.

And he followed the Thatcherite script in his attempt to win over wavering voters - including Ukip supporters - by setting out plans to extend the "Right to Buy" house purchase scheme to 1.3m housing association tenants.

Labour said the round of unfunded promises smacked of desperation, while there was criticism of the expansion of right-to-buy. John Cridland, head of the CBI, said the idea "doesn't solve the problem of boosting the supply of affordable housing".

But this was a manifesto with one overriding purpose: winning over potential Tory voters in marginal seats with attractive policies that can be immediately printed on Conservative election leaflets.

The prime minister set out plans to spend £350m on providing 30 hours of free childcare a week for parents of three and four year olds and promised to take many workers on the minimum wage out of the income tax system.

The commitment to a rail fare freeze - another unfunded promise - and the raising of the inheritance tax threshold completed a set of new policies aimed at swing voters.

The Conservative pitch for working class votes was part of a bout of cross-dressing by both main parties as they scrabble for an election breakthrough; unveiling its manifesto on Monday, Labour sought to reinvent itself as the party of fiscal discipline.

But Tory strategists hope that Labour's attempt to address its weakness on the economy will be seen as a mere change of tone, while Mr Cameron's new policies can be sold on the doorstep.

Launching the manifesto at a Swindon technology college, Mr Cameron attempted to address what Tory strategists admit is his biggest political problem: connecting the recovery to people's lives.

"The next five years are about turning the good news in our economy into a good life for you and your family," Mr Cameron said. "We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life."

The manifesto, assembled by Jo Johnson, a conservative minister and former Financial Times journalist, took "security" as its central theme, and attempted to link the country's recovery to improved childcare, schools, hospitals and pensions.

There was one omission that will frustrate some on the Tory right: the party does not commit to the Nato target of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence, but does restate a promise to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas aid.

Mr Cameron said a switch to Labour on May 7 could throw away the economic progress of the last five years: "Now is not a time to put it all at risk," he said. "We offer a good life for those willing to try because we are the party of working people."

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Mr Cameron said the policy would be funded from a £1.4bn cut in the pension tax relief offered to those earning more than £150,000 a year; the rest of the money raised by would be used to fund the inheritance tax cut for estates worth up to £1m.

The prime minister also promised to legislate to ensure that the income tax threshold would rise in line with increases in the minimum wage, declaring: "We will change the law so that no one earning the minimum wage will pay income tax."

That promise turned out to apply only to those working fewer than 30 hours a week on the minimum wage; they would already be covered by the Conservatives' plan to raise the income tax threshold to £12,500 by 2020.

Lord Ashcroft, the Tory peer and pollster, says it was too late for Labour to try to assert itself as a fiscally credible party, just as it was too late for the Conservatives to shift deep-rooted public attitudes.

He said last week the party should have moved earlier to address public perceptions that "the Tories were not on their side and were not to be trusted with public services like the NHS".

Lord Ashcroft said: "The Tories now score no better on these measures than they did at the last election. If too many voters see the Tories as the nasty party, they seem unlikely to win anyone over by ramping up the attacks on Miliband."

Many Conservative candidates believe the party should scale back personal attacks on the Labour leader but they nevertheless report that negative comments by voters about Mr Miliband are a recurring theme on the doorstep.

They also endorse the strategy promoted by Lynton Crosby, the party's campaign chief, to encourage fears among English voters about a minority Labour government beholden to the Scottish National party.

In spite of some concerns that the party's campaign to date has been too negative and that offering unfunded promises could backfire, most candidates remain confident the Conservatives will win most seats on May 7.

<>"The wind is in our sails - there's no doubt about that," said one who had recently returned from campaigning in several Conservative-Labour marginal seats.

Another said he expected the party to win 37 per cent of votes, to Labour's 33, just enough to see Mr Cameron returned to Downing Street.

Key to that could be whether the Tories can succeed in persuading voters that have defected to Ukip to return to the fold - a phenomenon that has already been witnessed in a series of polls in marginal seats.

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