"It will be seen as a very great gamble to take on the most important speech of his life without a script, and I think he will win plaudits from his audience, and from commentators, for having done that. People will be impressed by the way he did it.

"But I felt that the speech had one drawback as a result of that decision. I think when he stood up there and wanted to tell the audience and the country everything that was in his mind he probably went into too much detail about policies, all of which had been spelt out this week.

"Overall I think he was probably successful in giving conference the inspirational speech it needed. He has been helped this week by Gordon Brown allowing election speculation to continue, that has brought discipline to the Tory conference and left Mr Brown in a position where he either has to go to the country or risk looking cowardly. That has put Cameron in a stronger position that we could have thought at the beginning of this week.

"Also, at the end of his speech, with real passion, he called on Brown to let the country decide and to pass judgment on ten years of Labour government.

"The other thing that was noticeable about the speech was his decision to reveal himself to them. He wanted them to know that he realised that the fact he comes from a privileged background is an issue for some people. But he said, 'Look, I can't give you a hard luck story. My mother was a magistrate, my father a stockbroker.' But he decided not to show any sense of regret about that. He said that because he had such a good education he knows how to help deliver a good education for the rest.

"As for the election, Gordon Brown will decide on Sunday, I think. He'll look at the polls. There'll undoubtedly be a bounce for the Conservatives but the scale of that bounce will decide. If he's still got a solid lead at the end of the week I think he will find it hard not to call an election because the country has now been led to believe that there will be one.

"But I think Cameron has had a good week and I think the Conservatives have had a good week - and Labour has helped them by the way that they played the election speculation."

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