'We've done all that!' Kemi Badenoch aide says Tories have finished apologising for past 14 years

Her comments were made to the Conservative Women’s Organisation on June 18 of this year, reports The Telegraph.

Baroness Maclean also took a swipe at the previous Government, suggesting they had a "tendency to make announcements without thinking through how they would be delivered".

In the audio tape, she can be heard saying: "We’ve done the mea culpas, we’ve done the apologies, we’ve done all that.

"Now we want to look to the future and have something to give people hope, because we do strongly believe that we are the only party with a coherent set of plans, and we want to rebuild our reputation for competence and trust, and we think that comes from doing this very difficult work now."

It comes as Kemi's Conservative Party struggles to maintain their footing in polls with the Tories seven points behind Labour and 11 points behind Reform UK.

Some Tory backbenchers have conceded it may take least two years for the public to forget the mistakes of previous Conservative administrations.

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Reacting to the leaked audio, chair of the Labour Party Ellie Reeves said: "It shows just how out of touch the Tories are that they believe they have said sorry for their 14 years of failure in government.

"The Conservatives crashed the economy and left working people picking up the tab with sky-high mortgages and rocketing bills. Yet they haven’t apologised even once for their dismal record.

"The Tories’ attitude to the mess they made is completely tone deaf. It’s the same old Tories, they haven’t learned a thing."

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP said: "The Conservatives are completely deluded if they think the public have forgiven or forgotten the mess they’ve left behind.

"This is a slap in the face for families still paying out more for their mortgage because Liz Truss tanked the economy.

"Kemi Badenoch should urgently confirm whether she agrees with her own senior official on this, or if she will properly apologise to all those who suffered due to years of Conservative chaos under the government in which she served."

Badenoch is set to pledge later this week that the Tories are "now the only party committed to serious welfare reform" in a speech expected later this week.

One of the new amendments is to restrict Pip and Universal Credit health top-ups to British citizens only.

Under current rules, foreign nationals can claim these benefits, worth up to £1,200 monthly, if they have lived in Britain for two of the past three years.

Speaking about the plans on GB News this morning, shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: "That’s a big dividing line between ourselves and Labour, and indeed between ourselves and Reform, who want to spend more, for example by removing the two-child benefit cap."