David Cameron has accused the government of “undermining the personal and social responsibility that makes a strong society tick” and has vowed to revive a ’sense of community’ in a bid to mend ‘broken Britain’.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Conservative leader unveiled the latest phase of his campaign aimed at tackling the ‘dark side’ of family breakdown, lawlessness, violence and classroom disruption.

He wrote: “We’re going to encourage and enable people to get together to solve problems and make life better, instead of just waiting around for government to do it all.”

Highlighting the case murder of Sukhwinder Singh, who was murdered in East London after chasing two muggers, Mr Cameron writes: ‘Gordon Brown says we don’t live in a broken society. Sukhwinder may have suffered its most horrific expression, but there are many other victims too.’

He said ‘pensioners who live in fear behind bolted doors; teenagers who have a baby but no GCSEs; kids who are more likely to see their dad drunk than doing a day’s work; and the one in four women suffering domestic abuse at some point in their life’.

Building on Michael Gove’s pledge to give head teachers more powers, he said a Conservative government led by him would allow head teachers to search children for weapons and drugs and give them the final say on excluding pupils.

He wrote: “Unless children learn the difference between right and wrong, they will never develop the responsible character that is vital to a strong society.”

Single parents who work part-time and take on extra work to support their family will not have to pay extra tax under Tory plans.

Mr Cameron said he will overhaul the criminal justice system so that it supports rape crisis centres and tackle domestic violence.

‘We will use fines paid by criminals to fund up to 15 new rape crisis centres, and we will work with Mayor Michael Bloomberg to learn from New York’s success in cutting the number of domestic violence-related murders’.