Theresa May was booed at her own party conference in an unprecedented backlash against her much-criticised Chequers plan.

The Conservative Association chairman and Tory members heckled the Prime Minister as she referenced her Brexit proposals in a speech.

She was also denied a standing ovation as she left the closed meeting of the National Conservative Convention (NCC), the most senior body of the party’s voluntary wing.

It is believed to be the first time a prime minister has not received the traditional round of applause at the end of the two-hour grassroots event, which kicks off the conference every year.

John Strafford, the head of the grassroots movement the Conservative Campaign for Democracy, gave a speech in which he said Mrs May would be perceived as a “dictator” if she didn’t “chuck Chequers”.

Speaking at a fringe meeting, he said: “If the Prime Minister pursues her goal of the Chequers agreement in the face of the 17 million who voted to leave the European Union, in the face of a large number of her members of parliament, in the face of a sizeable majority of party members, then she will be showing all the characteristics of a dictator. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it is a duck!”