KEMI BADENOCH’S attempts to apologise for 14 years of Tory blunders drew derision from Labour today.

The top Conservative tried to relaunch her floundering leadership by offering a mea culpa for the calamities of the previous government.

Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said the Tories “haven’t listened and haven’t learned.

“Another speech, but no apology for her role in Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget that crashed the economy and left a £22 billion black hole in the public finances,” Ms Reeves added, reworking familiar Labour lines.

Turning up the heat on the Tories over their record in power, Labour claimed that just two of 49 armaments projects had run on time and on budget under the previous government.

A party spokesperson said: “Tory mismanagement left major defence programmes in disarray.

“The Tories hollowed out our armed forces, wasted billions and bungled vital projects.”

Commons leader Lucy Powell joined in the pile-on, saying: “It really has been quite incredible to watch the collective display of amnesia on the benches opposite over recent weeks.

“It’s like the last 14 years didn’t happen at all.”

Ms Powell pointed to the “fundamental weaknesses” that the Conservative government left behind, itemising “stagnant growth, low productivity, low wages, low skills, high mortgages, high debt, poor health, poor housing, woeful transport, deep-seated inequalities and no ambition under the previous government to gain the jobs of the future.”

Ms Badenoch barely scratched the surface of all that in her speech.

“I will acknowledge the Conservative Party made mistakes,” she said.

“We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.

“We made it the law that we would deliver net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. And only then did we start thinking about how we would do that.

“We announced that we would lower immigration, but immigration kept going up. These mistakes were made because we told people what they wanted to hear first and then tried to work it out later.

“That is going to stop under my leadership.”

Her list of blunders seemed designed to appeal to Elon Musk, the far-right tech tycoon attempting to seize the wheel of British politics. 

On cue, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy accused the Tories of  amplifying the “noise and conspiracy theories” of foreign billionaires.

She said: “We have no intention of conducting government by social media.

“While they amplify the noise and conspiracy theories, we are cracking on with delivering for people in the real world, where most of us spend our time.”