GORDON BROWN'S bid to launch Labour's political fightback with a policy-rich rallying conference speech hit an immediate setback when The Sun declared its support for the Tories.

Despite the Prime Minister setting out an ambitious raft of promises aimed at wooing back voters ahead of the next general election, the tabloid said he had failed to do enough to secure its coveted endorsement.

Cabinet minister Ed Miliband played down the move - which ends a period of Labour support going back to 1997 - insisting that "people decide elections not newspapers".

But the timing of the public declaration of support for David Cameron's Conservative Party -which holds its own annual gathering next week - is bound to increase the pressure on Mr Brown's position.

Mr Brown came out fighting in the make-or-break last conference address before the election, telling the party to "never stop believing" it could win, despite dismal opinion poll ratings.

New Labour was "not done yet", he declared, promising a series of measures designed to satisfy "the values of the mainstream majority" which he said he shared. In a clear effort to dispel accusations that his administration had run out of steam, Mr Brown peppered his address with promises for action.

Stopping 16 and 17-year-old mothers getting council homes, free personal care for the most needy elderly, clamping down on drink-fuelled violence and families from hell and a one-week maximum wait for cancer tests were among eye catching ideas.

Mr Brown 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 did 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 was given a standing ovation as he completed his hour-long speech which generated much praise from colleagues and activists leaving the hall in Brighton.

But they were quickly forced on to the defensive by the decision of The Sun, with Cabinet ministers all repeating the line that voters, not the media, would decide the outcome.

Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary who is co-ordinating Labour's next manifesto, said: "I suppose I take an old-fashioned view about this which is that people decide elections not newspapers. I think the Sun has made the wrong decision."