U-turns, blue-on-blue attacks, Liz Truss on the rack … one aide described it simply as ‘the worst four days of my life’
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Late nights, early starts and plenty of warm wine in between. Party conference season usually leaves the lobby worn down and ill. But this year’s annual Conservative meet in Birmingham was this in extremis. The depleted coffee and tea stand in the press area pointed to the adrenaline-caffeine high of four days of policy U-turns, market turmoil, blue-on-blue attacks and party plotting. I’ve covered numerous conferences in recent years, through the EU referendum, Brexit wars and days of Jeremy Corbyn. This was the wildest to date.
It began on the Saturday night and went downhill from there. I remember sitting in Asha’s curry house having dinner when security started to appear from the room at the back. Liz Truss walked out, followed eventually by her aides. “She was in quite a good mood,” recalls one ally. The team, too, seemed fine, despite the ongoing fallout from the mini-budget the week before that had managed to dominate – and even overshadow – Labour’s subsequent conference. Her aides billed the conference as an important chance to reset and get a grip following a week of speculation after the markets got spooked and the pound plummeted in the face of unfunded tax cuts.
Katy Balls is the Spectator’s deputy political editor
