Kemi Badenoch takes subtle swipe at Reform UK as she accuses Farage of having 'no plan'

Badenoch told the conference: "Strong men have lots of words but no plan. They promise everything and deliver nothing."

She added: "Populism becomes corrosive if it is just rage without thought and anger without actions."

She addressed her party's election defeat to the crowd at the ExCel Conference Centre comparing the Conservatives to President Trump, saying they used their first time in office to "spot the problems, but need the second term in order to fix them".

She added: “If we get this right, we stand at the dawn of the new Conservative century with so much opportunity and possibility.

"If we throw this opportunity away because of anger or self-doubt or weakness, our country and all of Western civilisation will be lost, and that is why we, the next generation of Conservatives, must lead the world back from the precipice. It is time to speak the truth."

The MP for Essex North West said the Tories have "limited time" to convince the electorate to back them in future, Badenoch said, as she pointed to problems with institutions such as the ECHR, a Europe-wide human rights treaty which has been used to prevent attempts to deport unauthorised migrants.

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Kemi told the conference: "I believe that loopholes in liberalism have been found and easily exploited. We have been hacked. The rule of law is what builds so much of the West."

She added: "We were members of this convention for half a century without this madness. What has changed is not the values, it’s the people.

"They are afraid of creating any kind of conflict.

"They use the most novel and expansive interpretations of human rights law to avoid it, and we see that lack of confidence now in everything from law and order to national defence, a fear of sticking up for young girls being abused by rape gangs over so many decades so as not to upset community relations."

Addressing what she described as her party's regeneration, she said: "For those of us who seek leadership, we must do better, and that is why in the United Kingdom my party is starting the largest renewal of policy and ideas in a generation.

"This conference is part of finding those answers and it fills me with hope. If we get this right, we stand at the dawn of the new Conservative century with so much opportunity and possibility."