After the chaos of last year in Birmingham which heralded the end for Liz Truss, there was an air of trepidation ahead of Conservative Conference in Manchester. With a year to go until the election, and with little sign of Labour’s poll lead narrowing, Rishi Sunak has to start taking risks. His aim was to inspire, reassure that all is not lost, and show voters that it is he who represents change rather than the party that has been in opposition for 13 years.
 
With conference a week ahead of Labour’s in a reversal of the usual sequencing, Ministers had to frame their speeches as attacks on Labour, but the sequencing also gives Labour the opportunity to appear as the ‘government in waiting’ and gives Keir Starmer the last word.
 
Conference was as busy and as optimistic as ever, and the business day – much criticised last year – was well organised. Predictions of a funereal mood were wide of the mark. Sunak has survived Conference unscathed but exciting new policy announcements were thin on the ground, several of his Cabinet seem to be auditioning for his job in Opposition, and the main story was, of course, HS2.
 
Liz Truss was the star of the fringe circuit. Her ‘Great British Growth Rally’ event was standing-room only, with a queue snaking round the Midland Hotel. With that response and a front page in the Telegraph, Truss will be leaving conference not only triumphant, but also with an emerging caucus of supportive MPs.
 
Post-Uxbridge byelection, Sunak thinks he’s found a wedge issue with his pro-car agenda but it is rail policy that dominated Conference, and his own speech. Sunak did a good damage-limitation job by pivoting towards his “Network North” list of smaller transport projects, but HS2 was not the issue his team will have wanted to dominate Conference.
 
More planned, maybe, was the message that the Conservative party is shifting to the right on Net Zero, immigration and gender politics. Home Secretary Suella Braverman made a crowd-pleasing main hall speech on migration on Tuesday, but the biggest sign of the direction of the Party was when video footage emerged of ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage dancing the night away with Braverman’s predecessor Priti Patel. When asked whether he would be welcoming Farage back into the Party, Sunak simply referred to his party as a “broad church”.
 
Perhaps wise tactically when trying to win the backing of Reclaim voters in marginal seats, but Sunak could be making the post-election Party even more difficult to manage. On current polls, Sunak has to take political risks and take the fight to Labour, but with his rightward shift, and Truss and Farage on the rise, Sunak may be gambling with the Conservatives’ future.

The media and corporate carnival now moves on to Labour in Liverpool next week. If you’re interested in making sure your organisation is election-ready, get in touch.

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