Conservative Leader David Cameron has said that his party is now "best-placed to fight poverty in our country" and Labour's "big government" has failed.
In a speech in London, he said the "rapid expansion" of the state under Labour had not reduced inequality, and that the "big government" approach made people dependent on the state and trapped them in poverty.
Labour's Yvette Cooper said it marked a "return to the Thatcherite approach".
Mark Easton reports.
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