SAVAGE austerity to fund tax cuts was the tired Tory strategy for government, pledged by party leader Kemi Badenoch in Manchester today.

This unappetising menu was spiced up by a new pledge to abolish stamp duty on house sales, which won loud applause from a conference in desperate need of stimulation.

She claimed that this was compatible with her commitment to fiscal stability, a circle which can only be squared by still deeper spending cuts.

Yet she did not reveal how this measure would increase housebuilding, since supply, not demand, is the besetting problem.

“We must free up our housing market, because a society where no-one can afford to buy or move is a society where social mobility is dead,” she said.

As previously announced by shadow chancellor Mel Stride, the Tories will cut £47 billion of state spending, the burden mainly borne by welfare spending and overseas aid.

Appealing to the City and high finance, Ms Badenoch committed to using half the money saved by the cuts on reducing the deficit, with the other half largely targeted at tax cuts.

She said reviving the economy “starts with fiscal responsibility. We have to get the deficit down and we must also show how every tax cut or spending increase is paid for.”

Ms Badenoch also said she would ban doctors from going on strike and repeal Labour’s employment rights legislation.

She claimed that this Bill will kill jobs, though the job at the top of her mind was doubtless her own.

The conference has been overshadowed by speculation about a leadership challenge as the Tories languish third in the polls, having lost further ground since what was already their worst-ever election result last year.

Ms Badenoch’s speech will likely prove insufficient to still the chatter and halt the onward march of her even-further-to-the-right rival, Robert Jenrick.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “At a time when the country and working people are facing real challenges, the Tories have no answers.

“They haven’t learnt their lesson from the last election. All they have to offer is more division, more austerity and more false promises.  

“As the Conservatives drift to the extremes, they’re becoming ever more irrelevant.”