Two of the brightest rising stars in the Conservative party, Sajid Javid and Liz Truss, addressed the Tory conference. After an angry day yesterday where Grant Shapps and the PM furiously attacked Ukip and their backbench colleagues piled in to savage Mark Reckless, the pair needed to use their slow to re-focus party minds on fighting Labour in the general election.
They are both well-equipped for such a task: Javid started his speech with a passage on his values as a British Tory, then moved onto attacking the snobbery he encountered from the Labour Party when he was appointed Culture Secretary, and Ken Livingstone’s comments that he saw Javid as a Pakistani and a banker. Javid responded: ‘well, Ken, I’m British.’ He argued that Labour couldn’t cope with his appointment because it had the wrong attitude. This passage on values and a moral high ground was very effective, and something the Tories need to do more often as Labour has long been better about talking up its values and sense of mission.
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