Conservative manifesto 2017: What the papers say about May's policies

Theresa May launched her party's manifesto in Halifax with an "attempt to re-define what it means to be Conservative", says the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

But "will the voters buy it?" continues the journalist.

In an effort to "distance herself from the Thatcher" era, the Prime Minister promised to "reject the cult of selfish individualism" and pledged to move resources away from the middle class and elderly and towards "ordinary working families", says the Financial Times.

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But that rejection of the cult of individualism might not begin at home. While the PM insisted there is no such thing as "Mayism" - referring to accusations she has been running a campaign focused on herself rather than her party - former Conservative MP Matthew Parris told BBC Radio 4 he thought "the lady doth protest too much".

Others agreed, with the BBC's Nick Robinson and The Times's Matt Chorley both tweeting on the number of mentions May made to herself during the speech.

It is not only May trying to break free of past connections; according to The Spectator's James Forsyth, the manifesto marks "a shift in the Tory party thinking, a move away from the ideological underpinnings of the Thatcher era".

His colleague Fraser Nelson concurrs, saying the Conservatives have moved to the left economically while "the national question has become much more important: getting Brexit right, keeping the Union together".

The Conservative Party could see "Thatcherism leaving its bloodstream" as the party "evolves", he adds.

May's tone was "tough but tough but fair, a hard realism for challenging times after the Brexit vote, rather than the 'sunshine' once offered by Cameron," says The Independent's Andrew Grice.

In fact, the whole document draws "a thick line under the Cameron-Osborne era," he says.

"May has gone where they feared to tread, potentially upsetting natural Tory voters – better off pensioners."

Stephen Bush in The New Statesman goes further, arguing the manifesto "is a huge shift away from the Cameron-era approach of building Conservative majorities on the back of ever-increasing redistribution from the old, who vote in great numbers and are more well-distributed across the country, and away from the young, who vote less and are clustered together in fewer seats."

There is criticism of May, however with former chancellor George Osborne using an editorial in the London Evening Standard to ridicule the Tory's net migration pledge.

The promise is "economically illiterate", he says, claiming no senior figures in the Cabinet backed it.

"Recommitting to a failed immigration pledge, without knowing how to achieve it, is merely wishful thinking," adds the paper's editor.

ITV's Robert Peston says it was on Brexit that the PM was toughest, writing: "The big message on Brexit of May's programme for government is that the principles she listed in her Lancaster House speech for exiting the EU - no future role for the European Court of Justice in Britain, departure from the single market and customs union, and control of immigration - will not be modified in any way."

May's unyielding assessment may well be seen as "a rebuke to pro-European Tories not to expect a more understanding hearing from her if she increases the Tory majority in the way opinion polls suggest she will," he concludes.