Kemi Badenoch's speech lacked enough ideas to reverse Tory unpopularity

This is no surprise. Mrs Badenoch has vastly improved in hear nearly two years as Tory leader.

In her early days she came across as tetchy and nervy, and too serious.

She has still retained her cutting, no nonsense nature - which works well - but she smiles more, seems more relaxed and confident in herself.

Mrs Badenoch had the usual scathing put downs. She poked fun at former cabinet minister Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, saying that the Conservatives have had “an export boom of drama queens going to Reform”.

She also mocked Labour ousting its own Prime Minister: “Keir Starmer. Remember him?

“Last year he was talking about being in power for a decade. Now he's not even an MP. Life comes at you pretty fast.”

There was a particularly strong - and deeply personal - part when she rejected calls to “unite the right” and do a deal with Reform UK.

She criticised Reform MPs for “openly questioning people's identity”.

She said she doesn’t “want to explain to my son when we're watching our brilliant England team play football that some people don't think our black players are English”.

She urged the public to “not let these people take us backwards” because “that is not the country we are”.

While she claimed the next election will be a “battle for the soul of the nation” and promised her party would focus on letting people “keep more of what they earn”, she did little to address its dwindling in the polls.

Despite Mrs Badenoch’s personal appeal, the Conservatives are still generally polling at less than 20 per cent.

This is lower than the 2024 general election, which was the party’s worst ever election defeat.

Although her speech was great for slamming others, there were few ideas in it which would convince floating voters to return to the Conservatives.

Her vow to slash - and potentially future abolish - inheritance tax was appealing to the Tory faithful, but does not affect large swathes of the British public and largely benefits the wealthiest.

And it will not be enough revive the economy, which she said would be the “central organising principle” of a future Conservative administration.

This is simply not enough to convince people to vote Tory.

This conundrum over personal and party-popularity is Mrs Badenoch’s biggest issue.

The public has not forgotten 14 years of Conservative rule, and realises that many of the issues that Labour faces are hangovers from when the Tories are in charge.

Mrs Badenoch’s party lost its reputation for fiscal credibility with Liz Truss, and it will take a long time to rebuild this.

It had run out of ideas after nearly a decade in a half. There were too few new ones in Mrs Badenoch’s speech.

She said is “optimistic because we have learned from our mistakes”.

The public does not yet believe her. And - even though much of her speech was strong - she failed to demonstrate what has actually changed.