The Conservative chairman has told Tories that they should not be ashamed of their past.

Dr Liam Fox was addressing the Conservative Entrepreneur's Forum on Monday evening and said that activists had no reason to be embarrassed by the party's record in government.

Since the election of former home secretary Michael Howard as Tory leader last year, Labour have sought to remind voters of the Thatcher and Major administrations' worst moments.

But Fox said that the Conservatives legacy was one of which supporters could be proud.

"We need to bring the principles, the philosophy and beliefs that have helped us do so much in the past to bear on the problems that beset today's Britain," he said.

"They are the beliefs that reinforced the Conservative government, under Margaret Thatcher, in standing up to the Soviet Union in the cold war.

"They are the principles which defied the conventional wisdom of the 1970s to liberate the workplace of the trades union bullyboys."

"They reflect the ideological convictions which brought about the conversion of our failing state owned industries and created a new and vibrant wealth producing sector. These were triumphs won in the teeth of Labour opposition, and Conservatives should rightly be proud of them."

Fox also called on Tories to trumpet this record and to reclaim the "language of conservatism" from Labour.

"All too often we in the Conservative Party are too modest to point out how we ourselves have benefited from the changes we have brought about not only in our own party but in society generally," he said.

"As well as ownership of our achievements we must also we take ownership of the language in which those achievements were expressed.

"One of the most marked features of new Labour has been to hijack the language of conservatism without having the faintest idea what it means."

And the party co-chairman reaffirmed Howard's commitment to equality of opportunity.

"There is no doubt that we are at our most successful politically, and at our most socially cohesive when we are at our most meritocratic," he said.

"And for a meritocratic party to be effective it must be minority blind. For us it does not matter where an individual comes from, who his parents were, or the colour of his skin.

"We do not see our society as a collection of minorities and, but rather as a wide spectrum of individuals, all with their own talents.

"The Conservative Party judges people not on their background but on their aspirations."

Labour chairman Ian McCartney said that "Liam Fox is confirming Michael Howard's aim is to complete the Thatcherite revolution".

"This means nothing less than patients being charged for essential healthcare and a return to crumbling schools and hospitals," he claimed.