David Cameron urged the Conservative Party faiithful to "let sunshine win the day" as he used his first conference speech as party leader to lay out his personal vision of Britain as an "opportunity society".

But the high-profile start to the Tory conference in Bournemouth, which included a guest appearance from Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential frontrunner, was upstaged by a new row over party funding.

Mr Cameron opened his speech with an attack on Labour for "nine years of centralisation, gimmick and spin", listing a long litany of "eyecatching initiatives" that never got off the drawing board.

The latest among them was its plan to introduce biometric ID cards, which he described as Labour's "plastic poll tax, twenty Millennium Domes rolled into one giant catastrophe-in-the-making".

"These last nine years have been the story of a Government which instinctively believes, whatever it says, that everything is the state's responsibility," he said. "We believe in social responsibility. Because there is such a thing as society - it's just not the same as the state."

Mr Cameron also prepared delegates for a further shift to the centre ground of British politics, likening his strategy to the careful construction of a house.
.
"These last ten months, we have been preparing the ground," he said. "Our party's history tells us the ground on which political success is built - it is the centre ground, not the bog of political compromise, not the ideological wilderness out on the fringes of debate, but the solid ground where people are.

"The centre ground is where you find the concerns, the hopes and the dreams of most people and families in this country.

"In 1979, they wanted a government to tame the unions, rescue our economy and restore Britain's pride. Margaret Thatcher offered precisely that alternative, and this Party can forever take pride in her magnificent achievements.

"Today, people want different things, the priorities are different: safer streets, schools that teach, a better quality of life, better treatment for carers. That's what people are talking about today.

"This week, in our debates, we will lay the foundations of the house we are building together.

"The foundations must come first. How superficial, how insubstantial it would be, for us to make up policies to meet the pressures of the moment. Policy without principle is like a house without foundations - it will not stand the test of time."

He added: "Labour are pessimists. They think that without their guidance people will do the wrong thing, that's why they want to regulate and control.

Times Recommends

• A vicar’s wife: ‘There is no one to fight for us’
• Every little helps at the supermarket
• Ugg or Fitflop? The battle of the boots