The Conservative Party conference went into lockdown due to an unknown potential security incident, it was reported on Monday afternoon.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was expected to give a speech at 4pm having earlier announced he would be scrapping his intention to drop the 45p tax rate.
Reporter Aletha Adu wrote on Twitter at 3.49pm: “Tory party conference is currently in lockdown due to an ‘unknown incident’.
“A number of MPs are pacing around clearly eager to get to their fringe”.
Shortly after 4pm, Birmingham Police tweeted: “Due to a potential security alert we have temporarily restricted access to and from the ICC.”
Live footage suggested the speech would still be going ahead and the main arena at the conference centre in Birmingham was shown to be full.
The Conservative Party had not commented at the time of writing.
Evening Standard political reporter Rachael Burford tweeted: “Tory party conference currently on lockdown.
“No one allowed in or out. Security said they have been asked to keep everyone inside the secure zone ‘for their own safety’.”
Senior journalist Sophia Sleigh added: “What’s going on? No-one allowed in or out of Tory conference.”
Later, the security alert ended and Kwarteng began his conference speech by saying “what a day, it has been tough”.
