Last year, the main event at Conservative party conference wasn’t the then Prime Minister Theresa May’s keynote speech. Her performance was competent, detailed, underwhelming. In an act of obvious foreshadowing it was Boris Johnson’s speech, the day before, that attracted all the crowds and dominated all the headlines.
In contrast, this year no ministerial speech has provided much cause for excitement. Chancellor Sajid Javid yesterday warmed the crowd with a touching interaction with his mother. Otherwise, ministers (who have been out and about on the conference fringe) have been briefed to say basically as little as possible. The excitement lies back in London, with the Remain alliance’s meetings and plots, the ongoing stories concerning Boris Johnson’s private life, and RTE Brussels correspondent Tony Connolly obtaining leaked backstop proposals.
The most excitement at conference has been off script. Veteran MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown was sent home this afternoon for getting involved in some kind of altercation with security staff in the “international lounge.” Unfortunately for Home Secretary Priti Patel, this happened just before she was due to give a speech on the Tories’ toughening their stance on crime.
Everything could change tomorrow when Boris Johnson delivers his first conference speech as leader of the Conservative Party. No doubt he will go through the usual rigmarole of criticising Labour and the Lib Dems, reflecting on the Conservative track record in government on issues ranging from the economy to the climate to social care. But the focus will be on delivering Brexit.
Emblazoned across the conference hall, on nearly every surface, are banners reading “Get Brexit Done.” We might hope, then, that Boris will give us some detail on how exactly he intends to do that. But we will likely be hoping in vain. Set pieces like the leader’s keynote conference speech aren’t usually big on technical detail, and Boris Johnson is especially broad brush even at the best of times. We can expect him to rally the crowd over his intention to get Brexit over the line, “come what may”; denounce those trying to thwart him; and generally try and inject that sense of “optimism” people criticised Theresa May for lacking.
Johnson thrives in this kind of environment, and that’s just as well – he needs a boost. The outcome of the wild month ahead is impossible to predict – but Johnson and No 10 will have to deliver a lot to survive in office. The EU council summit on 17th October is largely accepted as the cut-off date for Johnson to come up with a concrete deal. In the weeks before – later this week it seems – he’ll need to present Dublin with negotiable proposals, bring them back to parliament and win support from all sides of the chamber, and convince Merkel and Macron that he’s serious about getting Brexit done in an orderly way. A terrible day at conference tomorrow would scupper his hopes of that before he’s even started.
Unless, of course, Johnson and his right hand man Dominic Cummings have something up their sleeves – managing to get out with no deal, and without having to ask for an extension.
If there is a plan it’s being kept strictly under wraps. But tomorrow when he makes his first party conference speech in post, one which he has coveted for so long, he will be beginning the defining month of his premiership.