Momentum is with us, declares Cameron

David Cameron claimed the election momentum was with the Conservatives today as he began a frantic final week of campaigning with a raid into traditional Labour territory.

The Tory leader, regarded as the winner of the final leaders’ debate, said Labour was in “freefall” and that Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg looked “flaky” in the TV showdown.

Declaring that there were no longer any ’no-go’ areas for the party in its bid to seize power on May 6, he visited a South Yorkshire constituency where it would need a swing of more than 10.5% to win from third place.

He was speaking after a community meeting in Hoylandswaine, where he highlighted a new “contract” of key promises being used to bolster the final push to woo undecided voters.

“There are no ’no-go’ areas for this campaign. There is a chance of winning - I would not be here if there was not,” he said of newly-created Penistone and Stocksbridge, where Tory candidate Spencer Pitfield hopes to leapfrog the Lib Dems to beat Labour’s Angela Smith despite a nominal 9,000-plus majority.

Mr Cameron said he believed the Tories had “come back” strongly after the unexpectedly dramatic surge enjoyed by the Lib Dems on the back strong performances in the opening debates by Mr Clegg.

Mr Clegg declared today that it was now a “two-horse race” at the ballot box on May 6.

“In a good way they (the debates) have opened it up,” said Mr Cameron.

“It is challenging for us but we have come back strongly and we are making the big arguments. We are now in the final week of the campaign and we have the momentum.

“I never write off my opponents but the Labour campaign is in freefall,” he said – and highlighted Mr Clegg’s “extraordinary” answers last night on the issues of the euro and immigration.

“That’s very flaky and that does not reassure people about what they are getting,” he said.

Privately, senior party figures accept that it will be a tough task to snatch the seat but their mood is fairly buoyant going into the final days of the campaign, during which Mr Cameron is expected to further increase the pace of an already frenetic tour of the UK.

The “contract” being sent to millions of households in target seats sets out 16 key pledges with a message from the party leader to voters that: “If we don’t deliver our side of the bargain, vote us out in five years’ time.”

The Conservative leader’s battlebus was rebranded overnight to carry the slogan “Contract for Change”.

And Mr Cameron signed enlarged versions of the document at campaign events today in what he said was an attempt to reassure a sceptical public that politicians could offer genuine change.

“We are fighting not just Labour and the Liberals, we are fighting cynicism and apathy and deep, deep unhappiness with all politicians,” he said after visiting a school.

“I understand that and that’s why we are going to be setting out a contract with the British people saying ’This is our side of the bargain, we know how unhappy you are, how doubtful you are that anyone will achieve anything or change anything’.”

British troops would start coming home from Afghanistan during the next Parliament under a Conservative government, David Cameron indicated today.

Mr Cameron also made clear today that he would want British troops to start pulling out within five years if he took office.

“We’ve been there already for eight or nine years. That’s already a long time. We can’t be there for another eight or nine years,” he told a student at a college in Derby, another new target seat.

“It’s got to be in the next Parliament that these troops really start coming home – as soon as possible, but based on success, not on an artificial timetable.”