British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has reached out to his country's 'mainstream majority', promising to clean up politics and get tough on crime.
His address to the Labour Party conference in Brighton sought to win back disaffected middle class voters who turned to Labour under former prime minister Tony Blair.
In his final conference speech before the next British general election, which has to be held by May, Mr Brown said Labour had been right to pump billions of pounds into the economy to combat the recession.
He said he would make a legally binding commitment to cut the record budget deficit in half over the next four years.
Mr Brown stressed the virtues of 'fairness and responsibility' and said his government would get tough on the bonus culture at banks.
'Call them middle-class values, call them traditional working class values, call them family values, call them all of these; these are the values of the mainstream majority,' he said.
He also called on the Northern Ireland Executive to finalise the peace process by introducing the devolution of policing and justice powers in the next few months.
Liberal Democrats
In what is likely to be seen as an opening to the Liberal Democrats who could hold the balance of power in the next election if there is a hung parliament, Mr Brown said Labour would offer a referendum commitment to a vote on amending Britain's first-past-the-post voting system early in the next parliament.
Mr Brown also said voters would be able to oust MPs found to have broken rules on corruption.
Support for the 58-year-old Scot has melted away in the last year when Mr Brown has been hurt by a scandal over politicians' expenses, rising unemployment and a perception that he is a ditherer.
The latest opinion poll put Labour down in third place for the first time since 1982. The survey put the Conservatives on 36%, the Liberal Democrats on 25% and Labour on 24%.
During his 59-minute speech, Mr Brown argued his decisions have taken the sting out of the worst recession in decades and put Britain on track to economic recovery.
He tried to assuage voter anger over the expenses scandal that damaged all of Britain's main political parties and countered opposition charges that society is falling apart, with measures to tackle youth crime and binge drinking.
'We will never allow teenage tearaways or anybody else to turn our town centres into no-go areas at night times.'
Mr Brown was introduced on stage by wife his Sarah, who described him as 'my husband, my hero'.
