Cameron hops on campaign bus for one last ride

David Cameron on Tuesday embarks on a 36-hour final national campaign bus tour, as he appeals for the votes and seats that could allow him to cling to power in a hung parliament.

Mr Cameron needs to win at least 290 seats to give him a realistic chance of staying in Downing Street - probably with Liberal Democrat coalition support - but current FT projections show him falling short on 279.

George Osborne, chancellor, told the Financial Times, that the party had momentum, adding: "We are feeling very upbeat: we are only 23 seats short of an outright majority and can do this. We are going for it."

But bookmakers William Hill confirm the election could be the closest in a lifetime, offering equal odds of 10/11 on both Mr Cameron and Ed Miliband to be the next prime minister.

With the election finely balanced, the Liberal Democrats could be key. Nick Clegg, the party leader, was given a boost by an ICM poll putting him seven points ahead of Labour in his Sheffield Hallam seat.

Vince Cable, Lib Dem business secretary, suggested his party would try to strike a hard coalition bargain, saying they would demand the same number of ministers as in the last parliament.

The Lib Dems could see their number of MPs halved from the 57 the party won in 2010 to about 25, according to seat projections. This would imply that most of the party's MPs would become ministers if Mr Cable's demands were met in a new coalition.

Mr Cameron, who will campaign through Tuesday night into Wednesday, will then retreat with his advisers to plot his next move, should he emerge with the most seats in Thursday's election.

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"We will want to set the agenda, we will want to be on the front foot," said one Conservative official.

However, unless Mr Cameron is able to secure the support of half of the House of Commons - 325 seats, or 323 when the non-voting Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Sinn Fein MPs are discounted - his attempt to secure a Queen's Speech would almost certainly be voted down by Labour and the Scottish National party.

Current FT projections show the SNP securing 51 of Scotland's 59 seats, more than eight times their current Commons representation, and the Scottish Nationalists have vowed to use their power to vote down a Conservative government and to try to install a Labour one.

Mr Miliband believes that he would then win enough seats to be able to secure a Labour Queen's Speech; he would probably lead a minority administration, propped up informally by the SNP.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Labour will intensify its focus on the National Health Service, which party insiders say has emerged as the overriding issue for voters in the key marginals it must win to form a government.

It will unveil a leaked document that shows two out of every three NHS trusts expect to be in deficit in the current financial year, underlining a sharp deterioration in financial performance since 2013-14 when a contentious structural shake-up of the health service took effect.

An analysis of almost 100 hospitals' financial forecasts, from NHS Providers which represents most trusts, shows a combined projected deficit this year of £758m - three times higher than the comparable figure for 2014-15. The figures echo research by the FT published last month.

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