UK politics live: Badenoch vows to ‘make Starmer sweat’ as Jenrick promises big migration cut in Tory speeches

Kemi Badenoch has told the conference that the “stealthy poisoning of our society needs to stop”.

She said: “Unlike the Left, we know right from wrong but we allowed ourselves to be bowed by aggressive identity politics, by Treasury rules that were written by Gordon Brown and a legal system written by Tony Blair.

“You may think Blair and Brown were defeated in 2010 but the truth is the Left never left. It’s time to make a change. Ministers need to be able to make decisions that aren’t endlessly challenged in the courts. If the law says the government can’t deport a foreign child abuser, the law is an ass.”

Ms Badenoch claimed that it was time for “a change” on immigration, adding: “We are going to rewrite the rules of the game.”

The Tory leadership hopeful has now shifted to trans issues and defended her track record.

When she was women and equalities minister she promised to redefine the legal definition of the term “sex” to mean biological sex and not “redefined meanings of the word”.

Reflecting on her time as minister, she added: “For too long, government stayed silent as women were sacked for saying that a man cannot be a woman.

“I fought for them while Labour called them bigots, and it wasn’t until the SNP put a sex offender in a women’s prison that they understood the fight I was leading. We won that battle.”

Kemi Badenoch has said she has been fighting socialism and identity politics all her life.

She told the conference the country, like the 1970s, is facing a battle of ideas “against the left and its desire for ever greater social and economic control”.

The shadow secretary added: “It is socialism returned socialism in a suit. But you can give it a new label. You can sneak it in. You can promote class warfare under the banner of equality.

“You can take freedom and choice away from families by telling them that Ofsted inspection reports are unfair.

“If you call communism, environmentalism, you can close down businesses, block the roads and stop people going to work.”

Attacking Rishi Sunak’s administration, Kemi Badenoch has said the last government did not defend capitalism.

She added: “Capitalism does not mean corporatism. It does not mean monopolies. It means free markets and competition.

“We didn’t always protect those principles.

“Like Labour, we raised taxes on business, corporation tax, capital gains tax, we tax dividends, and we regulated like labour.”

The shadow business secretary, like Robert Jenrick, has said she is a net zero sceptic.

She told Tory members: “We set a target with no plan on how to meet it just so politicians could say we were the same country to do so.

“Now we have a net zero strategy addicted to state subsidy, making energy more expensive and hurting our economy.

“I am not a climate change sceptic, but I am a net zero sceptic. I did not become an MP just to deliver an agenda delivered by Ed Miliband... Plans must be delivered by principles, that is the Conservative way.”

Badenoch has had a difficult week but there is no doubt that her speech is landing best in the conference hall, David Maddox writes from the conference.

“Facing truth” about a party speaking right and governing left is one which chimes with Tory members.

Most powerful though is her description of growing up in Nigeria where fear of crime and despotism was an everyday reality.

The Tories have always been willing to go where Labour will not - electing female UK leaders.

Some people think of Badenoch as a new Thatcher. She is making a good go at proving them right today.

Like her Tory rivals, Kemi Badenoch has opened up about her upbringin and being born in the Uk but growing up in Nigeria.

She said: “I was born here, but I grew up in a place where fear was everywhere.

“You cannot understand it unless you’ve lived it, triple checking that all the doors and windows are locked, waking up in the night at every sound, listening as you hear your neighbors scream as they are being burgled and beaten, and wondering if your home will be next.

“When you’ve experienced that kind of fear, you’re not worried about being attacked on Twitter.

“You appreciate how rare and precious it is to live in a country with security, democracy, equality under the law and above all else, freedom – free speech, free enterprise, free markets, conservative freedoms, conservative principles.”

Kemi Badenoch has began her speech by telling Tories that “the system is broken” and “it’s time to tell the truth”.

She added: “The truth about our party, the truth about our politics, the truth about our future. For too long, politicians have been scared of the truth. For too long, politicians have hidden behind spin.

“For too long, politicians have been scared of the truth for too long.

“Politicians have hidden behind spin for too long. Politicians have told the public what they wanted to hear and then done their own thing.”

Ending his speech, Robert Jenrick said: “Britain rises when all our people rise, all of them. So let’s help them to rise again. 1974, 2024, a country facing huge challenges. A Labour government already out of answers, an opposition, a Conservative opposition facing a big choice.

“To go along with a failed consensus that is driving our country into the ground or to have the courage, to summon the courage to change course, to unite around the practical solutions that we face. And to change, really change. I want to lead that change. I want to be that change.

“So come with me, join me, work with me in this new Conservative Party. And together let’s take a stand for the country that we love.”

Robert Jenrick has just made a huge announcement, David Maddox writes from the conference.

Cutting foreign aid to find spending three per cent of GDP in defence would almost wipe out the aid budget.

The announcement went down well in the hall with Tory members but will see the party lurch to the right with a potential civil war with the centrists in the party.