Ed Miliband has said Labour will "change the way the country is run and who it is run for" as he launched the party's election manifesto.
Saying he had been tested as opposition leader and was "ready" for power, Mr Miliband said Labour would be a "party of change and responsibility".
He ruled out a "shopping list of proposals", guaranteeing all policies would require no extra borrowing.
But the Conservatives said Labour could not be trusted on the economy.
The manifesto sets out Labour's main policy pledges, including:
- A £2.5bn fund for the NHS paid for largely by a mansion tax on properties valued at over £2m
- Twenty-five hours of childcare for working parents of three and four-year olds and a new right to before and after-school help, paid for by rise in bank levy
- Freezing gas and electricity bills until 2017, so they can only fall not rise
- Banning some zero-hour contracts and raising the minimum wage to £8
- Scrapping winter fuel payments for the richest pensioners, capping child benefit rises and cutting ministers' pay by 5%
- A 50p tax rate on incomes over £150,000 a year and abolishing non-dom status. Rises in VAT and national insurance ruled out
- A cut in tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000
- A one-year freeze in rail fares, paid for by delays in upgrades to A27 and A358 roads
Speaking in Manchester, Mr Miliband said the first page of Labour's manifesto "sets out a vow to protect our nation's finances; a clear commitment that every policy... is paid for without a single penny of extra borrowing".
Labour would not promise anything it could not fund, he said, contrasting this with the Conservatives which he described as the "party of sums that do not add up and commitments that cannot be kept".
He added: "The plan we lay before you is no less ambitious because we live in a time of scarcity.
"It is more ambitious because it starts from a clear commitment to balance the books and more ambitious because it does not stop there.
"It meets the scale of the challenges we face today with not one policy funded by extra borrowing."
Mr Miliband said Labour would put the interests of working people ahead of powerful vested interests, promising to raise the minimum wage to £8 by 2020 and require the wealthiest in society to pay more in tax.
He said he would not seek to "carry on from where the last Labour government left off" but would "seek to solve the challenges of our time".
Addressing criticism of his leadership and suitability to be PM, which the Conservatives have made an election issue, he said: "Over the last four-and-a-half years, I have been tested.
"It is right that I have been tested for the privilege of leading this country.
"I am ready. Ready to put an end to the tired old idea that as long as we look after the rich and powerful we will all be OK.
"Ready to put into practice the truth that it is only when working people succeed, that Britain succeeds."
In other election news on Monday:
- The Liberal Democrats are launching a "five-point plan", aimed at consumers and commuters, with proposals such as to end above-inflation rail fare rises and force energy firms to allow customers to change supplier within 24 hours
- One hundred small business owners, some of which used to support Labour, have written a letter to the Sun saying they intend to vote Tory
- The Green Party calls for a "review" of horse and greyhound racing as it launches a national poster campaign
- Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage will be at opposite ends of the platform during the BBC's election debate on Thursday
- Labour has opened up a three-point lead over the Conservatives, according to the latest YouGov poll which puts Ed Miliband's party on 36%
Key priorities
Labour
Main pledges
- Responsibility "triple lock": fully funded manifesto, cut the deficit every year, balance the books as soon as possible in next parliament
- Extra £2.5bn for NHS, largely paid for by a mansion tax on properties valued at over £2m
- Raise minimum wage to more than £8ph by 2019
- No rise in VAT, NI or basic and higher rates of income tax
- Access to wraparound childcare for parents of primary school children
- Freeze energy bills until 2017 and give energy regulator new powers to cut bills this winter
With political parties under increasing pressure to explain how they will fund their pledges, the Institute for Fiscal Studies complained on Sunday that they were making "lots of promises" without producing much detail on how to deliver them.
Labour is aiming for a budget surplus in current spending "as soon as possible in the next Parliament".
Its manifesto commits a Labour government to what it calls a "budget responsibility lock".
This would "guarantee" that every policy is paid for without additional borrowing and would, in future, require all the major parties to have their tax and spending plans audited by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility before a general election.
Earlier, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said Labour would "do what it takes" to support the NHS but would not make any promises which could not be met.
Analysis by political editor Nick Robinson
Labour are already briefing that reassurance about the party's greatest perceived weakness - their seriousness about tackling the deficit - will feature on page one.
The prominence they're giving to their promise to be prudent is new. The detail which we have so far been told about is not.
So, today I'll be looking to see what eye-catching, vote-attracting, focus-group-tested pledges the party will add to its retail offer.
Much more importantly than the promises and the slogans, though, will be seeing whether Ed Miliband's manifesto paints a picture of the radical change he wants to produce in this country.
He and his allies have always seen himself as being in the mould of an Attlee or a Thatcher. If so, today's manifesto should tell us a lot more about what the next five years of a Miliband-led Britain could be like. Read Nick's blog in full.
Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have pledged to eliminate the current deficit by 2017/18.
However, while Labour promises to reduce the deficit during every year of the coming Parliament, the party offers no deadline, saying it would commit to achieving a budget surplus "as soon as possible" between 2015 and 2020.
Senior Conservatives said Labour's track record was one of economic mismanagement, with London Mayor and Conservative candidate Boris Johnson describing Mr Miliband and Mr Balls as the "Thelma and Louise of British politics".
And deputy Lib Dem leader Malcolm Bruce said Labour had a "mountain to climb to establish their economic credibility".
UKIP and the SNP also attacked Labour's plans. UKIP's Nigel Farage said there was no detail about how the deficit would be cut, while the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland would see further budget cuts under Labour.
The Conservatives and Greens are due to launch their manifestos on Tuesday, followed later this week by the Lib Dems and UKIP.
Several manifesto pledges made in 2010, including a Conservative plan to raise the inheritance tax threshold and a Lib Dem commitment for a "mansion tax" on £2m properties, did not make it into the coalition programme the two parties agreed on after the two parties went into government together.
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