Liz Truss vowed on Wednesday to get Britain “through the tempest” of rising energy and mortgage bills this winter as she stuck to her “growth, growth, growth” economic strategy.
In her keynote speech to the party faithful in Birmingham, the Prime Minister stressed the need to “stay the course” of her radical reforms which she argued would ultimately benefit the whole of the country.
But she was engulfed in her own storm as her first conference address as PM was being overshadowed by an extraordinary outburst of Tory civil war.
Even Cabinet ministers clashed as Ms Truss struggled to stamp her authority on her party and rebel MPs were plotting further revolts having forced a humiliating U-turn on the 45p top tax rate.
Ms Truss, though, brushed off the swirling controversy - and a Greenpeace heckler - as she focused on delivering a speech which could be key to the success of her administration.
Speaking just a month since she gained the keys to No10, she said: “These are stormy days.
“In these tough times, we need to step up.
“I am determined to get Britain moving, to get us through the tempest and put us on a stronger footing as a nation.”
With her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget of £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts having sent the pound into a nosedive, the Prime Minister emphasised that the new Government was committed to an “iron grip on the nation’s finances.”
While making no apology for the economic mayhem sparked by the mini-Budget, she said: “I am clear we cannot pave the path to sustainable economic growth without fiscal responsibility.
“We will bring down debt as a proportion of our national income,” she added, seeking to keep the markets becalmed.
After the revolt by Tory MPs, including ex-Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Grant Shapps which forced the tax climbdown, she appeared to take a swipe at her critics within the party.
“I have fought to get where I am today,” she said.
“I know how it feels to have your potential dismissed by those who think they know better.”
In a staunch defence of her economic plan, she set out a three point plan for turning the UK’s flagging economy around: cutting taxes, keeping an “iron grip” on the nation’s public finances and introducing economic reforms to remove “barriers to growth”.
“I have three priorities for our economy: growth, growth and growth,” she told the conference.
Despite the tax U-turn, she was defiant on the remainder of her £43bn tax cutting plan.
“Cutting taxes is the right thing to do morally and economically,” she added.
She accepted there had been “disruption” caused by the mini-Budget, but insisted her focus on growth rather than so much on redistributing wealth would pay off in the end.
In a deeply personal section, Ms Truss told how as a woman she had to fight harder to “get jobs, to get pay rises and to get on the housing ladder”.
Sexism she faced as a young girl made her “determined” to succeed, she said, as she spoke about as a child being presented on a plane with a “Junior Air Hostess” badge, while her brothers were given “Junior Pilot” pins.
She told of growing up in Leeds and took a swipe at people opposing her reforms.
Attacking what she claimed were “enemies of enterprise”, she rounded on “the militant unions and the vested interests dressed up as think-tanks”, adding “they prefer talking on Twitter to taking tough decisions. They taxi from North London townhouses to the BBC studio to dismiss anyone challenging the status quo.”
At times she appeared to be seeking to echo Margaret Thatcher, though, any attempts now to seek to portray herself as a “Lady Not For Turning” has been undermined by the screeching U-turn on the 45p tax rate.
The UK will be levelled up in “a Conservative way”, with economic growth expected to pay for public services investment in schools, police and the NHS, Ms Truss was due to say, with many economists, though, doubting sufficient growth will be delivered.
She vowed that the Government would improve A&E and ambulance waiting times and “bust the Covid backlog” crippling the health service.
She also promised to “build roads, rail, energy and broadband quicker”.
Building on her predecessor Boris Johnson’s strong support for Ukraine in its fight against Vladimir Putin’s forces, Ms Truss told the conference that the UK will “stand with our Ukrainian friends however long it takes”.
But as she sought to rein in clashing factions within her party, division at the heart of her Government were still being laid bare.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly chided Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and Home Secretary Suella Braverman for publicly stating personal positions, on raising benefits in line with inflation and human rights respectively, rather than discussing these issues privately within Government.
But the far bigger threat to Ms Truss came from the backbenchers, with former Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Grant Shapps having led the rebellion over the 45p tax rate.
In a stark warning, ex-Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said yesterday that the next ten days are a “critical period” for Ms Truss, with polls putting the Tories as much as 33 points behind Labour.
Polling guru Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said that for the Conservatives “all the ingredients for electoral defeat are in place”, with the swing among voters worse for the Tories than in 1992 after Black Wednesday.
In a ray of hope for the Conservatives amid the political turmoil, the pound had recovered its losses following Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget on September 23.
However, Tory MPs are already organising ahead of the return to Parliament next week to shape future Government decisions.
Ms Truss appears likely to come under intense pressure from her backbenchers to increase benefits next April in line with inflation, rather than earnings, which would deprive her of possibly £5 billion of savings which she may have been pencilling in to partly plug the fiscal hole left by her now £43 billion of unfunded tax cuts.
