“There are some things to be cheery about,” said Penny Mordaunt, cheerily, in the Heathrow Lounge in the Manchester Central Convention Complex last Tuesday, as she sipped her coffee and smiled benignly. Not the economy, not improving figures on immigration, nor any good news about sewage, concrete, knife crime, strikes or, er, all the other issues currently blighting the country. No, she was talking about the refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster, which is in urgent need of repairs, and which she is steering. And while she espoused the improvements in her traditionally charming, conciliatory way, it was never going to light up this conference.
It wasn’t that sort of year.
The metaphors at last week’s Conservative Party conference in Manchester couldn’t have been starker. At every party, instead of being offered chilled champagne, the assembled hacks had to grab a glass of prosecco instead (why is it that prosecco is always warm?). More than one MP told me the party was presently “all decorations and no tree”. And instead of there being standing room only in the halls with the big speeches, researchers and spads were being hauled out of pubs to make up the numbers.
The faction fighting in the party has already begun, and this was obvious last week
Yes, this year’s Tory conference was quiet. Not “chaotic”, as The Guardian would have it (I’m not sure The Guardian is allowed to use the words Conservative Conference without “chaotic” as a prefix), but certainly not invigorating. This wasn’t like 1996, which was really the end of days in anticipation of a big Blair win in ‘97, and the fringe and the bars were still lively (it’s mandated that Manchester will offer a good time, no matter how poor your spirits are), but this is a party in need of change when none seems to be on offer, and the event reflected that. Amid much nervousness about Rishi Sunak’s Wednesday speech — “It needs to be transformative, or else we may as well go straight into opposition,” said one MP, cheerily — Jeremy Hunt was described by a close colleague as “the low wattage Chancellor” and “dry as a stick” by another; one special adviser said, unprompted, “We’re dying”; while there was much discussion as to why the Tories were paying three times what Labour would have paid to hold their conference here.
The faction fighting in the party has already begun, and this was obvious last week. Nadine Dorries, Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg were all mooching about, as their acolytes worked the bars, spreading dissent (with many journalists wondering why Nigel Farage had been allowed in when he wasn’t even a member of the Conservative Party). But this year they were mostly on the outside looking in. Scared of saying anything that might cause them to be slapped down by the louder members of the party, the centrists were keeping their counsel, hoping for some common sense to emanate from the crowd, but knowing they were probably going to be disappointed.
The mood wasn’t like last year’s conference, either, when delegates didn’t know when the next badly aimed firework was going to go off, and last week there were still those who think the battle isn’t yet over — you’re never going to get anything but 100 per cent positivity from James “I’m a great communicator” Cleverly — but there was also a prevailing sense that this could be Rishi’s last conference as leader as well as his first.
In the end, Sunak’s speech was leaked so comprehensively that by time we heard it, most of it had already been shared in the media. We knew about the train, and the A-levels and the smoking, and none of it felt remotely revolutionary, to be honest. As Londoners we got quite excited by the prospect of a complete rejuvenation of Euston, but there was nothing smart about immigration, net zero or the NHS, just another request to believe.
The week ended with Labour’s win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, and the pendulum immediately swung back. Last week, the prospect of lowering inflation and an election that was still a year away gave the Tories some hope, but today a fifth election win feels even more unprecedented than it did back then.
