Full text of Cameron's speech

David Cameron told the country today he had the judgment, character and leadership to rebuild its battered economy and mend its broken society.

In his keynote speech to a Tory conference dominated by the financial crisis, Mr Cameron presented himself as a conviction politician ready to take the difficult and unpopular decisions to guide Britain to better times.

The Tory leader directly countered Gordon Brown’s claim that he lacked experience by declaring that only change, not more of the same, could repair the country’s ills.

Character and judgment mattered more than experience and if Mr Brown’s argument was taken to a conclusion there would never have been a Margaret Thatcher as prime minister and Mr Brown would go on forever, he told cheering activists.

Mr Cameron, in an hour-long speech adjusted late to reflect the gravity of the world financial situation, delighted his audience by invoking the spirit of Thatcherism.

The Conservative leader said he had no "miracle cure" to the challenges facing the country and told delegates at the party's annual conference in Birmingham that a Cameron administration's first priority would be to rein in government borrowing and spending, not to cut taxes.

Tory victory in the upcoming election would not mean an "overnight transformation" for Britain. The Conservatives would inherit "a huge deficit and an economy in a mess" and would need to do "difficult and unpopular things for the long term good of the country", he said, adding: "I know that. I'm ready for that."

Three years after his election as Tory leader, the party was now "united in spirit and united in purpose", said Mr Cameron.

He added: "We know that our task is to take people with us. Rebuilding our battered economy. Renewing our bureaucratised NHS. Repairing our broken society. That is our plan for change.

"But in these difficult times we promise no new dawns, no overnight transformations. "I'm a man with a plan, not a miracle cure." He added: "I know we are living in difficult times, but I am still optimistic because I have faith in human nature in our remarkable capacity to innovate, to experiment, to overcome obstacles and to find a way through difficulties whether those problems are created by man or nature. "We can and will come through. We always do. Not because of our government. But because of the people of Britain."

And he told representatives: "I believe that we now have the opportunity and more than that the responsibility to bring our country together.”

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