TONY Blair triumphed in the toughest conference test of his Premiership yesterday with a fearless attack on failed Old Labour and a pledge never to use "reverse gear" in his drive to reform public services.

In an echo of Margaret Thatcher's "the lady's not for turning" speech, the Prime Minister won over many of the sceptical delegates in Bournemouth who gave him an ecstatic ovation - despite his tough message over controversies such as top-up fees and foundation hospitals.

Fears that opponents of the Iraq war would heckle Mr Blair came to nothing, and he launched a passionate defence of freeing "people in torment, ground underfoot by brutality and weakness".

He scaled back on crowd-pleasing attacks on the Conservatives. Instead, at the centre of his 50-minute speech was a denunciation of the disastrous approach of previous Labour governments and a plea for New Labour not to fall into the same historic trap.

"Up to now there has been a ritual to Labour governments," he said. "Euphoria on victory. Hard slog in government. Tough times. Party accuses leadership of betrayal. Leadership accuses party of ingratitude. Disillusion. Defeat. Long period of Tory government before next outbreak of euphoria. We've been far better at defeating ourselves than the Tories have ever been."

Instead, the party was urged to keep to the central ground, to keep modernising and turn the Tories into the old-fashioned party, "a replica of what we used to be".

If the party did, Mr Blair promised a great future. He said: ''I do not just want an historic third term. Our aim must be an historic realignment of the political forces shaping our country and the wider world.

''Here we are poised, six-and-a-half years in, with a fantastic opportunity, to use or to lose.

''Yes, this is a testing time but it is a test not just of belief but of character - and the time is for renewal not retreat.''

He said he would end the old "top down approach" of the leader deciding policy for the party to follow but, at the same time, he refused to change course.

"This is a testing time. But it is a test not just of belief, but of character. And the time is for renewal, not retreat," he insisted.

Twice, Mr Blair referred to "stumbling", as well as admitting to mistakes, feeling "battered" and the "rough patch" he was in, but every time it led to the conclusion that tough times were when he proved his mettle.

He said: "Get rid of the false choice: principles or no principles. Replace it with the true choice, forward or back. I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear."

Delegates gave Mr Blair a seven-and-a-half minute standing ovation, but general secretary of the GMB union Kevin Curran dismissed the speech as ''a missed opportunity''. Mr Curran said there was nothing new in the Prime Minister's address which had failed to offer a "radical vision''.

The Prime Minister justified his decision to go to war by asking delegates to stand in his shoes.

He asked: "So what do I do? Say 'I've got the intelligence, but I've got a hunch its wrong?' Leave Saddam in place, but now with the world's democracies humiliated and him emboldened?"

He urged his party never to forget real improvements in the NHS, in educational standards, in putting the jobless back to work - despite Opposition attempts to talk them down.

But it was dishonest to pretend that expanded higher education could be funded through taxation, rather than top-up fees. "It won't and it wouldn't be fair if it did."

Support for foundation hospitals was won by comparing the policy's opponents - other parties, the BMA and the House of Lords - to those who fought the creation of the NHS in the first place.

Mr Blair detoured only briefly into popular Tory-bashing, but poured scorn on Conservative claims that they failed to win the Brent East by-election because it was "not natural Tory territory".

To laughter, he said: "If I was a Conservative, I would be wondering where on earth is our natural territory.

"We always knew the Tories didn't have a heart. Their problem now is they haven't got a heartland.