Michael Howard has pledged to repay the debt of loyalty owed to the country which saved him from the holocaust.

Speaking to party rank-and-file members in Bournemouth, the Tory leader reflected on the plight of his family.

He said "everything I have and everything I am I owe to this country".

"I was born in July 1941, two weeks after Hitler invaded Russia," he said.

"Those were very dark days. In the next four years millions of people were killed.

"Many lost their lives on the battlefield, at sea and in the air. Many lost their lives in cities blitzed from the air.

"And many lost their lives in the concentration camps set up by one of the cruellest tyrannies the world has ever known."

Howard said he too would have been murdered if Hitler had advanced into the UK.

"My grandmother was one of those killed in the concentration camps," he told the conference.

"If it hadn't been for Winston Churchill, and if it hadn't been for Britain, I would have been one of them too.

"That's why when I say I owe everything I am to this country, I really do mean it.

"I owe my life to it. My father told me Britain was the best country in the world.

"I think it was. And I think it still is. But I know we could be doing so much better."

Howard went on to say: "It's because I think I can help make things better that I am standing before you today.

"Put simply, I'm here so I can give back to Britain a tiny bit back of what Britain has given to me."