Liz Truss says when she came into office, she felt inaction wasn't an option and that it would be "unconscionable".

"Families would be unable to heat their homes," she says. "Businesses would have gone bust and jobs would have been lost.

"We would have had worse public services - including the NHS.

"I refused to confine our great country to decline."

Truss pauses her speech for a round of applause.

Truss says she wants to live in a country where hard work is rewarded.

The PM adds "we need to get Britain moving" and says there must be "no more drift and delay" from government.

Truss says: "I remember growing up in Leeds, where I saw too many children being let down by low expectations, by a Labour council who were more interested in political correctness than they were in school standards."

She reminds the public that she is the first PM to have gone to a comprehensive school.

Reflecting on her own personal and professional life Liz Truss says she fought to get jobs, pay rises and to get on the housing ladder.

"I juggled my career raising two wonderful daughters," she says.

Truss says she's interested in sorting peoples "hopes and fears" - including whether they can get a doctors' appointment or walk down high streets safely at night.

The PM adds "I want what you want".

The PM goes on to say that she is "driven in this mission by my firm belief in the British people. I believe you know best how to spend your own money to get on in life and to realise your ambitions."

She receives applause for her comments.

"That is what conservatism is about," she says. "It's a belief in freedom, fair play, and the great potential of the British people."

She adds she's not interested "in what 2 for 1 offers you buy at the supermarket" or in "virtue signalling".

Continuing her speech Liz Truss tells delegates that they are gathering at a vital time for the country.

She reflects on the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II, saying the late monarch was "the rock on which modern Britain was built".

Truss tells delegates these are "stormy days", adding "we need to step up".

Prime Minister Liz Truss kicks off her speech by arriving to M People's iconic lyrics "time to break free, nothin' can stop me" - possibly a nod her stated desire to break away from government orthodoxy.

The Tory faithful in the audience give her a standing ovation, with plenty of cheers.

She opens up by extolling the virtues of the host city Birmingham and the signs of growth in the city, adding "this is what a city with a Tory mayor looks like" - a reference to Andy Street.

Truss goes on to compliment Teeside's Conservative mayor Ben Houchen, calling for more Tory mayors to be elected across the country.

Prime Minister Liz Truss has begun to deliver her speech to Tory conference in Birmingham.

As promised by our political editor Chris Mason, she walked on stage to the sounds of a "90s classic" - in this case Moving On Up by M People.

Minister Nadhim Zahawi is warming up the crowd ahead of Liz Truss's speech.

He celebrates the fact that she is the UK’s third female prime minister - and gets a laugh for describing the Labour Party - who have never had a woman leader - as “all talk but all trousers”.

Our political correspondent Pete Saull says there are plenty of empty seats in the auditorium - and that this is a smaller hall than the one previously used for political leaders' speeches at the centre.

In a few minutes' time, Liz Truss is due to take the stage to deliver her first Conservative conference speech as prime minister.

There are reports she's going to arrive onstage to the M People song Moving On Up - but we'll find out in the next few minutes.

Stick with us and we'll bring you all the key lines and moments from her address to Tory MPs and the party faithful.

Nick Eardley
Chief political correspondent

This has been a bruising week for the new prime minister.

Just four weeks in office - and she's facing significant internal pressure; U-turns on tax, debates on benefits and more.

This should have been the climax of her honeymoon period. Instead, she's facing criticism from some backbenchers and even a few questions about her future.

Over the next half hour, she will try and take some of the initiative back.

Expect a strong defence of her economic plans and an attack on what she'll call an "anti-growth coalition".

Liz Truss will urge her party to unite and convince the country they have a plan that will work.

But the context for this speech is not what Truss will have wanted.

Our colleagues at BBC Radio 5 Live have been speaking to Conservative MPs and former government advisers to find out their opinions on the Conservative conference, ahead of Liz Truss’ speech in around 20 minutes.

Richard Graham, Conservative MP for Gloucester, believes every prime minister is “going to have issues where not all the ministers are on the same page”.

He says: “Her challenge is to unite us and today is a good opportunity to lay that out."

“If she and the government can fine-tune their plan so that the figures do stack up, she’s in a much stronger position for the party to get behind the plan.”

Gavin Barwell was the No 10 chief in staff for Theresa May. He says it’s “always a bad sign when cabinet ministers start going off the official line.

“The prime minister needs to get the cabinet ministers together and read the riot act.

“They have to make sure that before anything goes out in public, [the policies] have sufficient support.”

Kirsty Buchanan was Liz Truss’ special adviser in 2016-17 and says she’s “mentally one of the most resilient women I’ve ever met”.

She adds it has been an “extraordinarily difficult week and not a successful party conference.

“What do I think this speech will achieve today? Frankly, not that much.”

Image source, Reuters

The PM has just been pictured with her husband Hugh O'Leary arriving for her Tory conference address.

We're expecting her to deliver a keynote speech lasting around 25 minutes, at 11:00 BST.

Image source, Reuters

It's been the job of the foreign secretary this morning to speak to news outlets about the government's plans.

Speaking on Sky News, James Cleverly suggested that the media's focus on 45p tax rate was the reason behind the decision not to abolish it.

The plan to scrap the 45p rate, paid by people earning more than £150,000 a year, was announced as part of a package of tax cuts on 23 September. But the government dropped the plan earlier this week, saying it had become a "huge distraction" - after market turmoil and opposition from Tory MPs.

Cleverly told Sky News: "You guys were constantly talking about the 45p tax rate, which is why we had to take it away - so that us guys could talk about the 95% of that package which was about cutting tax for working families, support for people trying to pay their energy bills, giving growth zones around the country, and infrastructure investment for transport, which unlocks the growth in the economy.

"That's what we wanted to talk about and that's what we will talk about."

Our political editor has learned one colourful detail about Liz Truss's conference speech at 11:00 BST.

"She'll arrive on stage to a 90s classic," Chris Mason says.

He's also been told that the speech will be around 25 minutes long.

Stay with us as we bring you the details and reaction.

BBC political correspondent Ione Wells has been speaking to Tory members behind the scenes at the Conservative party conference.

See delegates give their impression of Liz Truss, and find out Ione's assessment of what the prime minister needs to deliver in her speech at in less than an hour's time.

We're expecting the prime minister to take to the Tory conference stage in around an hour (11:00 BST). Many attendees will have waited some time to see her.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

On Sunday, former cabinet minister Michael Gove took a stance against government policy - saying that cutting tax for the wealthiest in the current climate was "a display of the wrong values".

The remarks ultimately forced the U-turn announced by the Chancellor on Monday morning.

Yesterday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was "disappointed" by the U-turn and accused Tory rebels like Gove of staging a "coup".

Earlier, BBC Radio 4's Today programme aired a clip of Gove being asked on Tuesday if he was a coup leader.

"No," he replied.

As we've been reporting, the main event of the day in Birmingham is Liz Truss’s conference speech - her first as prime minister.

She is due to take the Tory conference stage at around 11:00 BST.

Following a turbulent few days for her party, she will be looking to inspire confidence in not just her leadership, but also the markets following the economic fallout from her chancellor's mini-budget on 23 September.

She’ll use her speech - expected to be around 25 minutes long - to explain why she thinks the "disruption" caused by her economic policies will be worth it.

"Everyone will benefit" from the economic growth produced by her tax-cutting plan, the PM will claim, while also insisting there can be no more "drift and delay" in the effort to boost economic growth.

We'll keep you abreast of what she says on this page.

More on what we expect the PM to say.