KEMI Badenoch backed an annual migration cap tonight and made a Thatcherite pitch for true-blue voters.
The Tory hopeful swung behind the idea of a fixed ceiling on net arrivals after previously stopping short of the pledge.
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And in a bid to win over the party faithful after a bruising first day at conference, she also hinted at tearing up the 2050 net zero emissions target.
Brushing off a row over her remarks on “excessive” maternity pay, she said she was being attacked like Margaret Thatcher after her notorious “there’s no such thing as society” comments.
Ms Badenoch is currently trailing immigration hardliner Robert Jenrick in the MP voting rounds – and the bitter rivals locked horns on boats and borders.
Capping net migration has long been the flagship promise of frontrunner Mr Jenrick – as well as quitting the European Convention on Human Rights.
Ms Badenoch has also opened the door to leaving the Strasbourg court but said that alone was “not a strategy” to stopping the boats.
As immigration became the central issue, the shadow communities secretary said: “I think there will need to be a cap, but we also need to design a system that means the cap cannot be manipulated.”
She added that migration stats “shouldn’t just be about the numbers. It should be about who is coming in, who is leaving, why that is happening”.
A rival camp said: “In three days Kemi’s gone from no cap to an unspecified cap. Who knows by the end of the week she might have the actual policy.”
Earlier Mr Jenrick – who pledged to “get migration done” had taken a pop at Ms Badenoch for seemingly minimising the importance of reducing the levels of net migration.
The former immigration minister – who has pledged to wrestle net annual arrivals below 100,000 – said: “I’ve said repeatedly that culture matters for integration.
“But where I do disagree with others is that numbers also matter. Because it’s ultimately the numbers coming into our country that places immense pressure on housing, public services and community cohesion.
He vowed to quit the ECHR without a referendum – saying Winston Churchill would be “turning in his grave” if he saw how the 1959 treaty was being used to block nation state decisions.
Meanwhile, Ms Badenoch also suggested she could review Britain’s legally-binding Net Zero target if ever in power.
She said: “We are Conservatives, of course we want a better environment.
“But we also need to make sure that we do so in a way that doesn’t bankrupt our country. We might review it.”