Gordon Brown came out fighting today - telling his party to "never stop believing" they could beat the Tories.

The Prime Minister set out an ambitious raft of policies designed to power a Labour fightback in the upcoming general election.

And he rallied delegates at the party conference in Brighton with a call "to fight, not bow out, not walk away, not give in, not give up but fight - fight to win for Britain".

In a defiant denial the party's time in power is coming to a close, he said: "Since 1997 Labour has given this country back its future. And we are not done yet.

"We love this country. And we have shown over the years that if you aim high you can lift not just yourself but your country - that there is nothing in life which is inevitable - it's about the change you choose."

In his final conference speech before the election the Prime Minister outlined a controversial plan to deny young mothers council homes.

Instead he said pregnant 16 and 17-year-olds should no longer be "given the keys to a council flat" and left on their own, but will be offered shelter and support in a network of supervised homes.

Presenting himself as sharing "the values of the mainstream majority", the Prime Minister promised action to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, including new powers for councils to ban 24-hour drinking in their area, "tough love" intervention for the country's 50,000 most difficult families and police action squads to tackle disorder in the run-up to Christmas.

Introduced on stage by wife Sarah as "my husband, my hero", Mr Brown won a rapturous reception from the party faithful with a speech designed to fire up Labour ahead of an election which pundits insist they are set to lose.

He warned voters that the upcoming election will present them with "the biggest choice for a generation" between "Conservatives who embrace pessimism and austerity and progressives like Labour who embrace prosperity and hope".

Rejecting Tory suggestions that the election will be an opportunity for voters to kick out the team which has run Britain for a decade, he framed the ballot instead as a choice between sharply different visions of the change the country needs.

And, he repeatedly insisted, Labour will "choose the change which benefits the majority not the few".

In a clear effort to dispel accusations that his administration has run out of steam, Mr Brown peppered his address with promises for action and said he was fighting "not for a fourth term Labour government, but for the first Labour government of this new global age".

Eye-catching promises included free personal care in their own homes for elderly people with the highest needs, a one-week maximum wait for cancer tests and free childcare for 250,000 two-year-olds.

The Prime Minister responded to the furore over Westminster expenses with plans to shake up the democratic system, including a new power for constituents to recall misbehaving MPs, a referendum on voting reform for general elections and a commitment to a "democratic and accountable" House of Lords.

He vowed to ensure that ID cards do not become compulsory during the next Parliament and promised to protect frontline spending on services - particularly schools.

And he pledged to increase the minimum wage, child benefit and child tax credit every year in the new Parliament.

Mr Brown said he had acted "decisively and immediately" to prevent a great depression caused by the banking crisis.

He was scathing about the bankers whose "bankrupt ideology" he blamed for causing the economic crisis. And he accused the Conservatives of being "consistently wrong" in their response to the recession.

"The Conservative Party were faced with the economic call of the century and they called it wrong," he said.

"And I say a party that makes the wrong choices on the most critical decisions it would have faced in government should not be given the chance to be in government."

Mr Brown accused Conservative free-marketeers of losing sight of the "basic British values of acting responsibly and acting fairly" which were at the heart of Labour's approach.

"Call them middle class values, call them traditional working class values, call them family values, call them values to live by, call them all of these; these are the values of the mainstream majority, the anchor of Britain's families, the best instincts of the British people, the soul of our party and the mission of our government.

"And I say this too: these are my values."

He warned a Conservative government would "callously and coldly" return Britain to the long-term unemployment and homelessness of the 1980s.

"The Conservative Party want people to believe that the ballot paper has an option marked change without consequence - that it's only a change of the team at the top," he said.

"They've deliberately held their cards close to their chest. They've done their best to conceal their policies and their instincts. But the financial crisis forced them to show their hand and they showed they had no hearts.

"And so I say to the British people the election to come will not be about my future - it's about your future. Your job. Your home. Your children's school. Your hospital. Your community. Your country."

Mr Brown was given a standing ovation as he completed his hour-long speech with an appeal to activists: "Never, never stop believing. And because the task is difficult the triumph will be even greater.

"Now is not the time to give in but to reach inside ourselves for the strength of our convictions.

"Because we are the Labour Party and our guiding duty is to stand. And fight. And win. And serve."