Kemi Badenoch has just announced that a Tory government led by her would abolish stamp duty.

The Tory leader also pledged to overturn Labour’s decision to add VAT to private school fees and scrap the changes to inheritance tax which have angered farmers.

She unveiled the eye-catching policies in a better-than-expected speech closing the Conservative conference which should be enough to see off any imminent threats to her leadership.

But the main problem for the party’s leader is that no one truly believes that she will ever be in a position to deliver any of those policies.

New polling from Ipsos shows that barely one in five voters (22%) expect her to ever become prime minister.

Unfortunately for Badenoch, that is not a rogue poll. According to YouGov, just 20% of the public believe she has done well since becoming Tory leader last November, while only 11% believe the Tories are ready for government.

The same pollster also found that half of Tory members believe Badenoch should not lead the party into the next election.

An almost identical number – 49% – do not believe she will still be in post the next time the country goes to the polls.

And even among those who voted for her to be party leader last year, 30% believe Badenoch should be replaced before the next general election.

As if to emphasise the desperate state of the Tories’ popularity, a new poll by More in Common this morning gave Reform UK a 13-point lead over Labour, with the Tories a further point behind on just 19%.

Gideon Skinner, senior UK director at Ipsos ,said: “Kemi Badenoch clearly needs to do more to establish herself as a credible alternative to the current Labour government.

“It’s also the case that Keir Starmer certainly has his own problems in public opinion.

“But so far, it is Reform and Nigel Farage who seem to be benefiting from this more than Kemi Badenoch, while the biggest question still facing the Conservatives is how they can rebuild trust with voters who are still very critical of their legacy, so that they will listen to what they have to say in the first place.”

Like Starmer following last week’s Labour conference, Badenoch will be mightily relieved that this week has gone well for her – despite the noises off about plots to replace her with Robert Jenrick.

However, both leaders still face a date with destiny on May 7 next year, when elections will take place for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and in councils across England.

If the opinion polls are even remotely accurate, Labour and the Tories are on course for a disastrous set of results which would in all likelihood seal Starmer and Badenoch’s respective fates.

More in Common’s Luke Tryl said: “Conference speeches rarely in of themselves move the dial. And lots of commentators thought Starmer gave a good speech last week and Reform’s lead grew.

“But I think in this case it will be a good test of whether anyone is still listening. If there’s no shift at all hard to see how anything other than major event gets them back in the game.”

The Tory leader’s policy blitz of the past few days – including a pledge to quit the European Convention on Human Rights – may well by her valuable breathing space.

But the chances of her ever being in position to implement them in government are virtually non-existent.

Kemi Badenoch has announced the Conservatives would abolish stamp duty if she wins the next election.

In her closing speech at the annual Tory conference in Manchester, the party leader insisted that she had a plan to fix Britain’s “broken model” – including the housing market.

“Young people trapped in the pain of working,” she said.

“Pensioners wanting to downsize. Stamp duty is a bad tax. We must go further. We must free up our housing market’I have looked at the stamp duty thresholds to see where we can change them. I have decided that we can’t. That simply will not be enough.

“Conference, the next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty on your home. It will be gone.”

Stamp duty is a tax property or land buyers have to buy if purchasing a property over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.

Badenoch claimed she would be able to afford to do this by introducing a “golden economic rule” where “every pound we save will go to work, at least half will go towards cutting the deficit, because living within our means is our first priority.”

She continued: “And with the rest, we will get Britain growing and bring down the taxes which are stifling our economy.”

Although the Tories have consistently polled at less than 20% in recent months, Badenoch also listed all of the tax hikes Labour has already implemented and called them “shameful”.

“The tax burden is so high it is making Britain poorer because business is giving up, business is leaving,” the MP for North West Essex said.

“Britain is being held back by a broken model,” Badenoch claimed. “To fix our country, we must reverse Labour’s broken measures.

“So, we will cancel their vindictive tax on education,” she said, alluding to Labour’s decision to drop the VAT exemption on private schools.

“We will scrap their tax on family farms,” she added, pointing to the government’s decision to tax inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m at 20%.

“We will scrap their tax on family businesses,” Badenoch noted, after Labour introduced a cap on business property relief.

“We will reverse the terrible measures in Angela Rayner’s Unemployment bill, written by the unions, for the unions,” she claimed, attacking the Employment Rights Bill meant to update workers’ rights.

She also announced that “together we would build something better.”

In her speech, Badenoch insisted that “only the Tory Party can deliver the stronger economy and stronger borders that will give people a more prosperous future,” while claiming Starmer is “utterly useless and weak”.

Her remarks come after her shadow chancellor Mel Stride alarmed fellow Tories by admitting he would raise income tax if he were Rachel Reeves and facing a huge fiscal black hole in the government’s finances.

He said this would be “the cleanest thing to do”, because hiking VAT would be inflationary.

His comments sparked immediate backlash from fellow Tories – including from Tory peer David Frost and shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, who could not hide his astonishment at Stride’s comments yesterday.

Stride also pledged to save £47bn a year, by cutting welfare, civil service and foreign aid.

This policy blitz comes after a quiet period from the Tories, who – ever since Badenoch was appointed as leader last November – have refrained from unveiling any substantial plans for government, until now.

Over the last week, Badenoch has also vowed to cut the civil service to 2016 numbers, promised to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, deport 150,000 illegal migrants each year, and repeal the Climate Change Act.