A Festival of Denial and Conspiracy: Behind the Scenes at Conservative Conference
Events in Birmingham exposed a party that has not even begun to wake up to the causes of its catastrophic defeat
The Conservative Party leadership race is in full swing. Or rather, swaying maniacally from side to side, convinced the voters are telling them: “You weren’t right-wing enough...”
At the party's first conference in opposition for 15 years, the four remaining candidates - Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, and Robert Jenrick - made their pitches to the party faithful.
Conservative conference seemed giddy, delirious in defeat, as the party avoided coming to terms with its crushing defeat in the recent general election.
The candidates have been playing to the gallery in an attempt to win over the party membership, who have the final say.
Kemi Badenoch, who has positioned herself as the ‘anti-woke’ candidate alongside Jenrick, claimed that the party lost its own voters by chasing after Labour votes (a surprise to anyone who witnessed the Rwanda scheme debacle).
Robert Jenrick also hummed that tune, branding Net Zero policies "mad" and claiming that Labour’s green energy plans would send fuel prices "sky high" - prompting a grim chuckle from those who saw their energy bills rise under the last Government, which is pretty much everybody.
Jenrick also courted controversy by suggesting that Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights in order to "detain and swiftly deport everyone who comes into our country illegally," while tearing up “Tony Blair’s Human Rights Act” which incorporated it into UK law.
Suspicions might be heightened when it comes to tearing up Britain’s human rights framework, after Jenrick said on Tuesday that he’d support bestowing a dukedom to the controversial historian David Starkey - who once claimed that American slavery wasn't an example of genocide because "so many damned Blacks” survived.
Tom Tugendhat, seen as one of the more moderate candidates, has proposed setting a legal cap on net migration of 100,000 - a policy that would require mass deportations, presumably every year, if the immigration limit were exceeded.
He also slammed PM Keir Starmer over "freeing criminals", despite the fact that the Prime Minister has simply been implementing the early release plans put in place by the previous Conservative government.
James Cleverly has attempted to portray himself as a fighter, telling party members, "I don’t lose." He accused Labour of giving "inflation-busting pay rises to their union paymasters," a claim that is deeply misleading given that the pay rises in question went to millions of public sector workers, not to invented ‘union baron’ bogeymen.
Behind the scenes, there are signs of discontent among the more sensible Conservative figures.
Andy Street, the former Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands, is reportedly threatening to quit the party if a new leader, announced on November 2, takes the party further to the right. He may have been asleep for the past few years.
Politico reported that a Conservative campaign aide was overheard at the conference saying: "Everybody here is delusional. Everyone is drinking and having a good time and pretending like we didn't just lose 300 seats and get annihilated. People need to get a grip and realise how much we need to change."
But is anyone still listening?