CRUEL cuts and climate calamity were the core of the Conservative offer at their conference in Manchester today.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride pledged £47 billion of spending reductions, much of it to come from the welfare bill and from sacking civil servants, if the Tories win the next general election.

He also pledged to finish the work begun by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in eviscerating the overseas aid bill, which under Tory rule would shrink to just 0.1 per cent of GDP, far below the 0.7 per cent target enshrined in law.

Speaking to a conference hall no more than a quarter full, Mr Stride tried to rouse torpid delegates by pledging to abolish business rates from high street shops and pubs.

He also promised to reverse any lifting of the two-child benefit cap and to stop all foreign nationals from ever claiming benefits.

But latest opinion polling reveals that just 10 per cent of young people are presently planning on voting for the Conservative Party.

Meanwhile, shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho announced plans to abandon net-zero policies, including scrapping the carbon tax and ending subsidies for renewable energy.

Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth denounced the plans, saying: “The Conservatives’ promise of cheaper energy while opposing wind and solar is contradictory nonsense. Renewable energy is far cheaper than building more fossil fuel plants.”

Mr Stride also pledged the party’s troth to big business, saying: “Loud and clear, Labour may have given up on you, but this Conservative Party never, ever will. We will always be there for business.”

Already, leader Kemi Badenoch has set the tone for the conference with pledges of mass migrant deportations and to leave the European Convention on Human Rights in a bid to beat Reform as politics leapfrogs to the right.

Her rival Robert Jenrick, manoeuvring to replace Ms Badenoch, welcomed the shift to a policy he has long advocated, saying that there was “a traffic jam on the road to Damascus right now.”

Yet there is dissent. Former Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat told a fringe meeting that attacked “sensationalist soundbites” and added: “When ‘Leave the ECHR’ becomes conditional to becoming a Tory candidate, the party has moved into a dark place.”