Jeremy Corbyn was given a rapturous reception from Labour delegates in Brighton as he told them that the party was now the “government-in-waiting”.
The Labour leader had to wait several minutes before delivering his keynote speech as the familiar chant of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” rang round the conference hall.
Mr Corbyn said that the June 8 general election, which saw Labour make its biggest gains since 1945, had put the party on the path to power.
“It is a result that has put the Tories on notice and Labour on the threshold of power,” he said to loud applause.
A year after having to fight to keep his job as leader, Mr Corbyn said that the four-day conference had shown a “united party advancing in every part of Britain, winning the confidence of millions of our fellow citizens and setting out our ideas and our plans for our country’s future and inspiring people of all ages and all backgrounds”.
He promised that Labour in power would be about “making change by working together and standing up for all”.
And he said that it would take action to close the gender pay gap, including making equal pay mandatory in large companies.
The Labour leader claimed Theresa May and her ministers were “hanging on by their fingertips”, and mocked the Prime Minister’s “strong and stable” election slogan.
He said Labour was ready to tackle inequality, rebuild the NHS and invest in the economy.
It would tackle the “challenges of climate change and automation”.
A Labour government would put “peace and justice at the heart of our foreign policy”, Mr Corbyn said.
On Brexit, the Labour leader said his party would build a “new and progressive” relationship with Europe.
“We are ready and the Tories are clearly not,” he said. “They are certainly not strong and they are definitely not stable. They are hanging on by their fingertips.”
In a swipe at Mrs May’s £1 billion deal with the DUP to prop up her minority administration, he said the Conservatives had found a “magic money tree” and “now we know the price of power”.
Mr Corbyn said there was a “coalition of chaos all around the Cabinet table” instead of getting to grips with the major issues affecting the country.
He cited falling pay, rising homelessness, longer NHS waiting lists, rising child and in-work poverty, police officers losing their jobs and condemnation by the UN for disabled policies as evidence of Tory failing.
“That’s not strong and stable, it’s callous and it’s calculating,” he said.
Labour had stopped the Tories in their tracks in the election, Mr Corbyn said, leading to U-turns on issues such as grammar schools, the winter fuel allowance and the pensions triple lock.
“This coalition of Conservative chaos is tearing up its manifesto and tearing itself apart,” he said. “They’re bereft of ideas, and they’re bereft of energy. We’ve got plenty of energy, I can assure you of that.”
Jeremy Corbyn delivers his speech at the Labour Party annual conference (Gareth Fuller/PA )
He called on Theresa May to end austerity, abolish tuition fees and end the public sector pay cap.
“This is a deeply divided Government with no purpose beyond clinging to power,” he said. “It’s Labour that’s now setting the agenda.”
Mr Corbyn said Labour’s election manifesto set out “the programme of a modern, progressive socialist party that has rediscovered its roots and purpose, bucking the trend all across Europe”.
Thanking activists for their part in Labour’s campaign, he told them: “You are the future and I am awed and humbled by everything you have done. I have never been more proud to be the elected leader of this party.”
After Mrs May decided to hold the snap election during a hiking break with husband Philip in Snowdonia, Mr Corbyn challenged her to do the same again and call another early poll.
“Take another walking holiday and make another impetuous decision,” he said, in a message to the Prime Minister.
“The Labour campaign machine is primed and ready to roll.”
As Mr Corbyn paid tribute to Diane Abbott and condemned the social media abuse she has suffered, he had to break off as the audience broke into a chorus of Happy Birthday for the shadow home secretary, who has turned 64.