Priti Patel strikes a bullish tone

The theme of Priti Patel’s party conference speech this afternoon was very much ‘large and in charge’. She devoted much of her address to talking about the immigration system, as you’d expect, promising stronger crackdowns on people being smuggled across the Channel in boats.

Whereas Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have talked about Britain ‘voting for change’ in 2016, Patel focused on the Vote Leave favourite: taking back control. She told the conference hall this was the key theme of her reforms to immigration, saying: ‘My new plan for immigration is already making its way through parliament. At the heart of this plan is a simple principle. Control. That is not unreasonable.’

Other snappy slogans such as ‘turn back the boats’ followed. She repeatedly pledged that she ‘will act’ on criminals, disruptive protests and borders. On protest, she included a previously-rejected policy to crack down on demonstrations (no doubt prompted by the Insulate Britain action on the motorways), by giving the police and courts ‘new powers’.