Prime Minister David Cameron took to the podium to claim the Conservatives are the party of working people, while he pledged to finish the job of getting the country's economy back on track.
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| Credit The Conservative Party |
He also promised a future Conservative government would eliminate Britain's deficit within the next parliament and showcased a new policy giving social housing tenants the right-to-buy their homes at a discounted price.
This is an echo of a popular Conservative scheme of the 1980's under then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Some social housing analysts blame the policy for depleting the country's social housing stock for generations. To counter this inevitable criticism, Mr Cameron said hundreds of thousands of new homes would be built to ease the country's fierce demand for housing in many urban areas.
This has not convinced the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies which said this and other spending commitments had implications for the Conservative's plan to eliminate the deficit in day-to-day spending by 2017-18.
Other election pledges include extra funding for the National Health Service, additional hours of free childcare and legislation to keep people working 30 hours on minimum wage out of the tax system.
The claim to be the party for working people is a clear bid for voters who traditionally support Labour. On Monday, Labour's leader Ed Miliband claimed to be the party of economic responsibility, in a bid for voters who trust the Conservatives with the country's purse.
On the Conservative manifesto Ed Miliband said the party had "no idea" how the right-to-buy and the other spending commitments would be funded.
With just over three weeks to go before the election, and the parties still neck and neck in the opinion polls, both parties appear to be attempting to rebrand themselves. Their success or otherwise will be seen after the May 7th vote.
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