Kennedy attacks 'irrelevant' Tories as he stakes to be the second party

Leader's speech

Charles Kennedy urged the Liberal Democrats yesterday to step up a gear in the drive for political power, forecasting that they were on the brink of an "electoral earthquake".

The Liberal Democrat leader closed his party conference with a scathing attack on the Blair Government for losing its way and on the Tories for their "parliamentary silence" in their role as the Opposition.

He argued that the failings of the two biggest parties left the Liberal Democrats with the best chance in almost a century to break out of their position as the third force of politics.

Although he insisted that the Liberal Democrats were "increasingly seen as the party of tomorrow and not just among young people", he coupled his upbeat assessment of their prospects with a blunt warning to activists against complacency, urging them to "quicken the pace".

He told the Brighton conference: "Steadily, month by month, our influence and credibility is growing. The attraction isn't simply that we're not Labour or the Tories. Our image is becoming stronger, our role even more clear." The Liberal Democrat leader raised the prospect of replacing the Conservative Party – which he dismissed as "faded and jaded" – as the official Opposition in the near future.

"I've always said as your leader that the process of building up the Liberal Democrats in British politics is more a marathon than a sprint. But now has to be the time to quicken the pace," he said. "British politics is up for grabs in a way it has not been for 100 years. The price and the prize is very great. There's no law which says when the Conservative Party is down it must come back up. And there's no law which says the Liberal Democrats must remain third."

Mr Kennedy added: "As a party, we must believe in ourselves as never before. But there are millions, millions more out there who can be persuaded, who want to be persuaded, to believe in us too."

He claimed that the party was well placed to pick up the support of disillusioned voters from left and right, pointing to last year's general election gains of Guildford, Surrey, from the Tories and Chesterfield, Derbyshire, from Labour.

"You would think these two constituencies wouldn't have that much in common – apart from the unfortunate fact that they were at the opposite edges of this week's earthquake zone," Mr Kennedy said. "But we did win both and I can promise you this. We will be creating a lot more electoral earthquakes of our own, come the next general election.

"You see, people no longer recognise the outdated distinctions of left and right. In this era of new politics we can set out our stall confident in the knowledge that the argument is going our way."

His speech, which won a four-minute standing ovation, was seen by many Liberal Democrat MPs as the most important of his career after a lacklustre performance last year. It came at the end of a week during which the party had adopted policies on decentralising power in the public services and clamping down on violent crime, and narrowly blocked a controversial plan to allow 16-year-olds to buy hard-core pornography.

During the 45-minute address, Mr Kennedy sought to position the party as constructive critics of an "illiberal" Government lacking in conviction. He singled out David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, for condemnation over his "insensitive language and intemperate actions" towards asylum-seekers and race relations. "You would never have heard that from a genuinely reforming Labour Home Secretary like Roy Jenkins," he said.

The Liberal Democrat leader also denounced the "shambles" over the A-level examination results this month. He said: "What a disgrace for a Government six years into power that is."

Mr Kennedy added: "There's one fundamental difference between the Government and ourselves. We're liberal. They're not."

But he reserved his fiercest language for a Conservative Opposition that was "rendering itself redundant and irrelevant in the body politic of this country". He ridiculed the "arch-sceptic" Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, for sending his front-bench team around Europe seeking policy ideas to correct the mistakes of successive Conservative governments. Mr Kennedy also dismissed the Shadow Cabinet as a "phantom cabinet", adding: "The invisibility quotient of this lot is unbelievable. Lord Lucan manages to maintain a considerably higher profile."

The Liberal Democrat leader hailed the "radical reform in our programme for public services – under which control over schools and hospitals would be devolved to local communities – for distinguishing it from Labour. "The policy is distinctive, it is fresh and it has great appeal. It's a case we can argue with confidence and conviction between now and the next general election," he said.

Mr Kennedy issued an ultimatum to Tony Blair on electoral reform, reminding delegates of the deal drawn up before the 2001 election that a review of voting systems for Westminster would be held after next year's local polls. He said: "It was a promise I sought and extracted from them and I mean to hold them to it."

He accused Mr Blair of failing to show leadership on the European single currency, and hinted that he was no longer expecting a referendum on the euro during this Parliament. Mr Blair could announce a Referendum Bill in this autumn's Queen's Speech, but "I'm not holding my breath", Mr Kennedy said.

Accusing the Government of an "abject abdication of responsibility" on the issue, he said: "The Prime Minister and his Chancellor have got to resolve their collective political position. Europe has become an unacceptable conspiracy of silence in British politics." He added: "Tony Blair would like to talk about it, but Gordon Brown won't let him, and that is an insult to the collective intelligence of the British electorate."

On Iraq, he reiterated the party's insistence that the United Nations should pass a new resolution, setting a timetable for the unconditional readmission of UN weapons inspectors, and that any military action involving British troops would have to be approved in advance by the House of Commons.

"For those of us who have never embraced unilateralism by Britain, it wouldn't make sense to subscribe to American unilateralism either," he said, to applause from the conference floor.

Mr Kennedy cited the party's stance on Iraq as one of the factors that was helping to win it support across the country. "We're now in the strongest position to speak for the British people because we're most in tune and in touch with the British people. They're looking to us to speak up on Iraq, to speak up on public services, to speak up on human rights and to speak up and speak out for liberal democracy," he told the conference.