DAVID CAMERON today promises to cut income tax for married couples as part of a plan to win back disillusioned Tory voters ahead of the general election. In an exclusive interview with The

Sunday Telegraph on the eve of the campaign, the Prime Minister says he will work to regain the trust of traditional Conservatives who have lost faith in the party since 2010.

He announces his plan to “expand” the new married couples’ tax allowance, which comes into force next month, so that families can benefit from a more generous scheme after the election.

The reform is designed to appeal to the party’s disgruntled grassroots, as well as stay-at-home mothers, and the Prime Minister says he believes it will prove “very popular”.

Speaking from his study inside No10, the Prime Minister fires the starting gun for the frantic weeks of the full-time campaign, which officially begins when Parliament is dissolved at midnight tonight.

In the interview, the Conservative leader: ÞRenews his vow to cut immigration to a target of below 100,000 a year, telling voters angry at his failure to meet the goal so far: “I hear you, I hear your concern, I get your message.” ÞPledges to save the Army from further cuts after the election, by ruling out reductions in reservists as well as regular soldiers. ÞAnnounces that the total value of lifetime savings that the over-55s will be able to take out of their pension pots after next week’s reform comes to £140billion, the equivalent of £25,000 per person.

In the interview, he describes his personal anguish at taking life-and-death decisions involving British troops or responding when hostages have been murdered by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He declares that he wants the terrorist known as “Jihadi John” to be hunted down and does not mind whether he is captured or killed: “I would like him out of action.”

Mr Cameron also rejects criticism of his personal style and his reputation for “chillaxing”, saying he usually starts work before 6am at his kitchen table. “I work bloody hard,” he says.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister was heckled by a party member while delivering a speech at the Tory spring conference in Manchester. Mike Howson, 59, a party member from Staffordshire, said Mr Cameron had “betrayed this country on Europe and immigration”.

Mr Howson said he had switched his allegiance to the UK Independence Party and said many grassroots members felt similarly angry and let down by the actions of the Conservatives in government.

In his interview, conducted on Friday, Mr Cameron concedes that he has work to do to regain lost support

“I accept I have a task in the next 41 days to win back people who are instinctively Conservative, who have strong Conservative values and some of them have drifted off to other parties,” he says. “I need to win them back.”

He says he wants to extend the marriage allowance, a tax break that comes into force for basic-rate taxpayers in April. Under current rules it will save couples up to an extra £212 a year when they transfer a portion of their own taxfree income allowance to their higherearning husband or wife.

However, many Tory MPs regard the bonus as relatively small, and want it to be extended so that higher-rate taxpayers earning more than £42,385 a year can also benefit. Mr Cameron is determined to go further with the reform if he wins the election on May 7.

“I am very proud to have kept my commitment to introduce the married couples’ tax allowance. I think it will prove very popular,” he says.

Mr Cameron says pension changes coming into force on April 6 will enable the over-55s to withdraw savings worth on average £25,000 each, totalling £140billion. The reform, first announced in last year’s Budget, will make Britain “a country where it pays to save”.

He declares that his guiding principle for a second term will be to cut taxes and boost savings so that more people who work hard can “live the good life”.

After five years of power-sharing with Nick Clegg, the Prime Minister attacks the Liberal Democrats and rejects the idea of another coalition. He says the lowest point of the past five years of government came when Mr Clegg “ratted” on a deal to redraw parliamentary constituency boundaries, which would have boosted the Tories’ electoral hopes.