It’s day two at the Conservative party conference and many attendees will be waking up with sore heads today. The fringes were packed last night as Tory ministers did the rounds. Liz Truss, the darling of the free market think tanks, appeared at the Think Tent equipped with a magnificent blow dry and an applause-winning speech which castigated cancel culture as ‘fundamentally wrong.’ That and other jibes at identity politics in her conference address lead the Daily Mail this morning to ask whether she is in fact the new Mrs Thatcher.
Elsewhere Michael Gove was on manoeuvres at the CPS while Stuart Andrew did the late night rounds, telling Conservatives in Communications that when he accepted a post in the whips office he was ‘slightly anxious that it would mean I wouldn’t be able to speak in the chamber, given I’ve got such a marginal seat.’ The then Chief Whip, Gavin Williamson replied: ‘Stuart, I’ve heard you speak – and we’ve got a better chance of winning if you don’t.’
But the main focus of the evening was on the big two of British politics and the parties they showed up for – and those they didn’t.
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