Kemi Badenoch insisted that the Tories are “up for the fight” as she kicked off the party’s annual conference in Manchester. The Conservative leader admitted her party had “a mountain to climb” as it languishes behind Reform UK and Labour in the polls.

But she insisted the Tories could win the next election by “combining secure borders with a shared culture”. In her speech yesterday, Mrs Badenoch set out plans to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and deport 150,000 illegal immigrants a year.

She said: “Nations cannot survive on diversity alone. We need a strong common culture rooted in our history, our language, our institutions and our belief in liberty under the law. That is what holds us together, and that is why borders matter, why numbers matter, but most of all, why culture matters.”

The plans include the creation of a “Removals Force”, inspired by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency, a radical tightening of asylum eligibility and the abolition of courts handling immigration cases.

It comes as Nigel Farage‘s party is consistently leading national opinion polls.

The latest Find Out Now survey gives Reform a double-digit lead with 35%.

Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour Party is 16 points behind with 19%, while the Tories are third with 14%.