The usually composed (and well-dressed) Prime Minister is losing his cool. In a moan to the British press pack in New York last week, Starmer snapped the freebiegate flak was “unfair”. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Downing Street didn’t invite Westminster lobby journalists to Starmer’s tête-à-tête with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Tricky questions about overhauling Brexit would be welcome by comparison.
Stripped of power and out in the cold after 14 years, the Tories gathered in Birmingham to compete for attention. When asked the naughtiest thing he’d done – a question Theresa May answered by saying she’d once run through a field of wheat – Tom Tugendhat responded he had invaded Iraq. Robert Jenrick handed out baseball caps reading “We want Bobby J”, apparently in ignorance of slang. Kemi Badenoch tried to spark an argument in an almost empty room. James Cleverly looked startled, as usual. One ex-minister groaned the entire ugly spectacle wasn’t worth his train fare.
Liz Truss is losing her pulling power. The ex-PM drew a big crowd but observed nobody whooped after Telegraph interlocutor Tim Stanley, a true believer, declared the party yearned to see her back in parliament. It was a rare moment of self-awareness – from Truss.
The lunatics took over the asylum when Tory party members were allowed to speak in the big hall. One insisted Enoch Powell was owed a posthumous apology because he had been smeared over his 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech that was fair and accurate. Another, a farmer, wanted immigrants tagged and put to work before adding he needed labourers to pick potatoes. Introducing Mississippi-style chain gangs may be too far for even Jenrick. The hapless shadow minister thanked everybody for their interesting contributions.
What they don’t say in public: a Conservative ex-minister, still an MP, believes one third of Britain is racist, the proportion is higher among Tory members, that racism fuelled criticism of Sunak and is a barrier that Badenoch privately acknowledges but publicly avoids.
The Cons charged £300 a desk in the media room. The BBC bought ten, the Guardian and the Telegraph both 12, the Mail 16 – and, way out in front, was News UK with a whopping 36. “That’s just for Times Radio,” quipped an envious rival.
Tory bouncers lifted a ban on the Morning Star’s Andrew Murray covering the conference after the Sun’s political editor, Harry Cole, argued an injury to one was an injury to all. Journalists of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your Tory censors.
[See also: Could the Tories win the next election?]
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This article appears in the 02 Oct 2024 issue of the New Statesman, The fury of history