Suella Braverman is making Rishi Sunak look weak

The National Conservatism conference is entering its third day in London, and has managed to grab more headlines than the official Conservative conference usually does. Tory party conferences have become so stage-managed that attendees often don’t bother going into the main hall – except for a quiet breather – because they know they won’t learn anything from the speakers. Last autumn, one of the Tory events included a minister and a guest speaker holding an ‘in conversation’ session that appeared to have been pre-written on a script. No wonder the NatCon event is making waves – and has been so attractive to Tory MPs and ministers, including the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, because it appears to be a genuine conference rather than a stage performance.

The problem for Rishi Sunak is that stage performance is the sort of thing a party trying to stay in government for an historic fifth term after the next general election should be aiming for, not a debate about what Conservatism should be.