Kemi Badenoch hit every single note in her barnstorming speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, successfully savaging both Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, and repositioning her movement to one focused on tax cutting and fiscal responsibility.

Witty, warm and confident, Ms Badenoch stunned her critics with her performance and attention-grabbing pledge to scrap stamp duty and cut Britain’s deficit through spending cuts.

The UK’s public sector borrowing has risen to record levels — 5.1 per cent of GDP — under Labour. Meanwhile, the economy grew just 1.1 per cent in 2024. Those metrics were the underlying themes of Ms Badenoch’s speech.

She shunned culture war issues and dropped the previous government’s slogan to “stop the boats”, a pledge that has proved impossible and v

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