They want to gladden your heart they, not Labour, are in power

BORIS JOHNSON will seek to convince thetory faithful who have gathered today in a rain-drenched Manchester for the Conservative Party conference that they are not about to enter a winter of wild discontent.

This is the moment when the Prime Minister can showcase his refreshed Cabinet team and try his best to convince us that his bold plans for a levelled-up Britain remain on track.

With time running out to deliver on the hopes of voters who handed him a landslide in 2019, Mr Johnson will see his big speech onwednesday as an opportunity to dazzle retinas with a vision of plutonium-grade optimism.

A party conference guarantees ministers a moment on the airwaves.they will want to use their snatches of limelight to gladden your heart that they, and not Labour, are in power; above all, they want to bolster your confidence in the economy.

The hitch is that they are guaranteed to be asked questions at every turn about petrol shortages, benefits cuts, energy bills and whatever gaffes their colleagues have made on stage or at one of the galaxy of fringe events.

Battalions of protesters routinely head to Manchester at conference time to barracktories from beyond the steel fences of the secure zone, and this time they will be making the case that any woes in contemporary Britain can be traced back to Brexit.

The party will seek to snuff out the narrative that it was a mistake to leave the EU by celebrating Britain’s vaccine success story. A main stage event onwednesday is dedicated to this triumph, with the title “Injection of Hope”.

A strategic priority will be love-bombing the business community and its influential donors, convincing them that despite the increases in national insurance, stratosphere-busting borrowing and the prospect of hikes to corporation tax, they remain the party of enterprise.

Ambitious MPS hoping to establish themselves as heirs to Thatcher may well tour conference rooms, extolling the virtues of tax cuts and further privatisation and drawing a subtle contrast between themselves and the Chancellor and the PM.

They will jump at chances to bash the BBC and cement their unionist credentials by condemning the Northern

Ireland protocol.

An irony of conference is that it is essentially the Westminster village on tour.

At great expense, the same MPS, special advisers, hacks and lobbyists who throng Whitehall, once a year grab their umbrellas, don a lanyard and head North.

At worst, conferences have the feel of corporate events where speeches are entirely focused on the television audience rather than the people in the hall.

But there will be a special social frisson this year.

Last year’s bash was kiboshed by Covid so there will be both poignancy and excitement that the circus is back.