The best reason for visiting party conferences is to sniff the air. It’s fragments of conversation drifting through a bar, expressions on faces, tones of voice, that tell you the most. What I picked up in Manchester is first, that Theresa May is really fighting to stay; second, that Boris Johnson is overplaying his hand; but third, that this is over a profound issue of policy and not just ‘blond ambition’ .
I gave Mrs May a relatively tough interview and I think she was pretty cross. But my impressions were that the ‘burning injustices’ leader of the Downing Street steps is the real one; she’s frustrated she went off-message; and she now badly wants to get back to it.
The trouble is, Brexit overshadows everything. Talking to the most passionate Brexiteers, I was struck by just how much they fear betrayal and failure. They regarded the Florence speech as potentially disastrous because the proffered two-year transition allows time for the Tories to lose crucial votes in the Commons, and then an election — at which point the whole project might fall.
This is, of course, what many Remainers hope for.
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