Iain Duncan Smith has sent out a message to the country that "the Conservatives are back".

In a speech that sought to draw a line under the legacy of two disastrous election defeats, the Tory leader told his party not to underestimate his determination to stick to the course he has set.

"Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man," he said.

After a week in which his party set out a series of policy initiatives on education, health, crime and pensions, Duncan Smith said that the Conservatives were now "fit for government".

His message to a public "tired of politics and crying out for change" was that he had learned the lessons of past mistakes.

Backing party chairman Theresa May's "excellent" speech which warned the party about the need to modernise, Duncan Smith said under his leadership the party would "live in the present and prepare for the future".

And he reiterated his hardline anti-euro stance, saying that "when I was told I had no future in parliament...because of my determination to keep the pound, I did not waver".

The speech earned a six-minute standing ovation from the party faithful.

The FT notes the speech's parallels with both the "compassionate conservatism" of George W Bush and a 1988 speech by George Bush Snr in which he declared himself "a quiet man [who hears] the quiet people others don't".