Kemi Badenoch vowed to axe death duties on family homes today as she rallied her Tory troops with a brutal attack on Labour's big state. 

Closing the party's conference in Birmingham, Mrs Badenoch said that if she wins power no family properties will be subject to inheritance tax.

Couples would also get a further million pound allowance not subject to the levy – which has been increasingly hitting the middle classes.

Insisting the £6billion tax cut shows she is leading the 'party of home ownership,' Mrs Badenoch said: 'No stamp duty when you buy your home, no mansion tax when you live in your home and no inheritance tax on your home when you pass it to your children or grandchildren.'

She added: 'The Labour Party think it is selfish to pass on what you have earned to your children. We don't.'

The commitment is part of a powerfully aspirational path for the country, which also includes slashing the National Insurance burden for firms wanting to employ young people. The moves will be funded by dramatic curbs to welfare, the civil service, asylum costs and overseas aid.   

Mrs Badenoch teed up the next election – which senior Conservatives believe could come as early as next year – as a 'battle for the soul of this nation'. 

Condemning Andy Burnham's desire to 'wind back the clock' to the 1970s, she cautioned that his 'ideas will make every single person in this country poorer'. 

She accused Labour of being 'addicted to welfare' and treating income and savings as 'theirs to take and hand out'. 

Swiping at the PM's 'eyelashes and pork scratchings' communications style, she added: 'Just because these ideas are delivered on TikTok doesn't make them any less dangerous than they have ever been.' 

In a speech lasting just over an hour, Mrs Badenoch said the 'fundamental problem' facing the country was that it is 'running out of money'. 'More government costs more money,' she said. 

She also warned that Labour must not delay announcements on increasing defence spending, arguing that 'if you want peace, you have to prepare for war'.  

The big set-piece moment came at the end of a four-day gathering that has cemented Mrs Badenoch's authority.

The Tories have been declaring their intent to make the state smaller in a bid to get the UK economy growing and competing once again. 

They have pledged to cut a tax every year if they win power, including removing the 'cliff edge' that strips childcare from high earners.  

Net Zero red tape and quangos have also been in the party's crosshairs, while shadow ministers have backed a huge expansion in defence spending and pressing ahead with Heathrow's third runway.

In the key announcement today, Mrs Badenoch said: 'Let's go back to first principles – what is the thing that most people want to pass on to their children and grandchildren? It is their family home.

'Conference, the Conservatives are and always have been the party of home ownership.

'We understand why putting roots down and having a stake in society matters – our homes are where we watch our children take their first steps.

'They are where we gather every Christmas to put up the same decorations – passing on your home to your family is one of the most human instincts of all.

'So, conference, the next Conservative government will legislate so nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home.'

However, the Tory leader said she wanted to go further in her 'ambition' of doing away with inheritance tax altogether.

As a result the party was promising that couples will be able to leave 'an additional £1million tax-free'. Aides said that meant each member of the couple would get a £500,000 tax-free allowance, which can be passed over to a surviving spouse. 

Currently couples can hand down £325,000 per person tax-free, and a further £175,000 each from a residential property. But that £1million threshold has not risen since 2009 and is due to stay frozen until at least 2031.

'These changes mean every inheritance tax bill will be cut and the number of families paying inheritance tax will fall by more than half,' Mrs Badenoch said.

'My ambition is to abolish inheritance tax altogether, as soon as we can afford it. That can only happen with a Conservative government.

'I believe the people who work hard and save should be rewarded for that effort.'

The Tories said there will be no limit on the value of the family home exempted from inheritance tax. 

The inheritance tax cut would cost £6billion a year, on top of the £9billion for the previously-announced abolition of stamp duty. 

Halving National Insurance for employers who take on young people would cost another £2.3billion a year.

The tax changes would be offset by more than £36billion in welfare savings by the end of the decade, including £13.7billion from sickness and disability benefit reforms and £3.1billion from reintroducing the two-child benefit cap.  

In her speech, Mrs Badenoch said the country once again faces a Left-wing Labour government that believes economic growth is 'created by politicians' and a PM who wants to 'wind back the clock to failed ideas of the past'. 

'They think government knows best. They think that your income, your pension and your savings are theirs to take and then hand out as they see fit,' she said.

'They claim that what they are doing is compassionate but we know that these ideas will make every single person in this country poorer.'

Mrs Badenoch accused Labour of believing 'growth is created by politicians' and presiding over a 'tax doom loop that is making us all poorer'.

She warned that 'everything' now depends on ending the 'crazy' situation of Britain borrowing tens of billions of pounds a year to pay the interest on a national debt approaching £3trillion.

Committing to make economic growth the central principle of the next Conservative government, she told conference: 'I've got a plan to get Britain growing again, the kind of growth that you can actually see and feel.'

The Tory leader added: 'Growth looks like graduates choosing between jobs instead of choosing between job centres.

'There will be construction jobs because we will have scrapped obscure rules like the Aarhus Convention, how many of you have heard about that? That's what activists use to block development.

'When we are in charge, no one from Natural England will turn up with a clipboard to count all the bats and newts.

'It's time for us to build new nuclear and not worry about whether the fish can have discos. And, yes, it's time to finally build that third runway at Heathrow.

'Last week, Andy Burnham said Heathrow expansion was the matter for London. No, Prime Minister, you are not the mayor of Manchester any more. The future of our country's busiest airport is not a regional matter, it is a matter for you. So, stop faffing about and let's get this runway built.'

Mrs Badenoch pleaded with voters not to let Mr Burnham 'fool you with his fluttering eyelashes and his pork scratchings'.

'When Andy Burnham was in opposition with (Jeremy) Corbyn he didn't feel a need to change the leader. But after Keir Starmer won a landslide, Burnham couldn't wait to get back and take it off him,' she said.

'That is who Andy Burnham is... He said opening No 10 North was the best day of his life. Really? It's got a fake Cabinet room, a cardboard cutout of Larry the cat, and the address isn't even No 10. It's all make believe.'

Mrs Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of setting out plans for a national care service 'without a plan to pay for it', before adding that reopening Brexit negotiations would be 'a terrible idea'.

Insisting the Conservatives are 'coming back,' Mrs Badenoch said: 'Let me tell you I am not someone who gets written off and neither is the Conservative Party.

'There is a reason why the Conservative Party is still here after 200 years. We have adapted to every single challenge and every single age and we are doing it again.' 

She joked about defections to Reform – including former frontbencher Robert Jenrick – saying the party had an 'export boom of drama queens'. 

Mrs Badenoch dismissed the idea of an alliance with Nigel Farage, saying: 'We are not uniting with that... people deserve better.' 

But she also appealed for Reform voters to come back. 

Mrs Badenoch also hit out at Reform for fuelling a debate over 'whether my mixed race children are English'. Suella Braverman has been arguing that she is British but of Asian background and not ethnically English.  

'I don't want to explain to my son when we're watching our brilliant English team play football that some people don't think that black players are English,' Mrs Badenoch said. 

The Conservative leader said the 'secret' about her shadow cabinet was that 'we actually like each other'. 

'This party is now the no-drama party, we are the no-nonsense party,' she said. 

She likened the Conservatives to Marks & Spencer, saying the brand had been criticised for being 'a bit stuffy and stuck in the past' and some had questioned whether it would 'survive'.

'Now, M&S is back in fashion – great looks at affordable prices,' she said. 

'They have adapted their style for today's market and people are flooding back, including me, as you've probably noticed this week.

'Just like M&S, we must learn from our mistakes, win back trust and make people feel good about our party again.'

Mrs Badenoch said: 'I want us to win in three years' time.

'To be honest, I want us to win next week. We are ready for an election whenever it's called because we are the only party that understands what has gone wrong in Britain and knows how to put it right.'

Employers have blamed a triple whammy of changes under Labour for making it less attractive to employ young people.

These include hikes in the youth minimum wage, a wave of new employment rights and increases in NI.

Under the new Tory plans, employer National Insurance for workers aged 21 to 24 will be halved from 15 per cent to just 7.5 per cent.

This would allow businesses to keep an average of £1,545 for every young worker, making them more attractive to hire.

Reform UK claimed only 2 per cent of British households would benefit from Mrs Badenoch's plans to scrap inheritance tax on family homes.

The party pointed to analysis by the estate agent Savills to support its claim, which also said the majority of homeowners who would benefit from the change would be based in London.

Reform's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said: 'As usual, Kemi has chickened out of doing anything big. Presumably, it's because she couldn't match Reform's pledge to resign if she doesn't deliver on her promises.

'While the Tory Party is offering handouts to multi-millionaires, Reform will give everyone a £500 tax cut by raising the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000. The Tory Party is looking after its own in Kensington, Reform is looking after the country.

'She's for the 2 per cent, we're for 98 per cent.'