The PM can seize the moment to set course for a decade of Tory rule

Conservative conference is invariably an expensive, timeconsuming and increasingly irrelevant lose-lose event for any leader. Deliver a polished, sure-footed gathering and it’ll be forgotten by the weekend. Mess it up with a lacklustre speech – or through the ill-discipline of your colleagues – and you’ll be reminded of it for years.

The last Tory conference to change the political weather was in Blackpool in 2007. Then, partly through design and partly through the ineptitude of Gordon Brown, momentum switched from a prime minister seemingly in control to an Opposition dismissed by many as unelectable.

In Birmingham, Theresa May must convince her party and the media that this conference matters just as much. Over four days, the Prime Minister has an opportunity to lay the road for a potential decade of Conservative rule.

So what are the key messages and impressions she and her team will be hoping to land? First, through her life-chances agenda and industrial strategies, she aims to secure the support of hard-grafting families and send a signal to moderate Labour supporters turned off by Jeremy Corbyn’s out-of-touch definition of working Britain.

The second aim is to put meat on the Brexit bone. Mrs May’s range of shots must go beyond a re-working of her “Brexit means Brexit” straight bat. What happens next?

The third objective will be to bring an emotionally damaged party together, for it is internal fractures and not the walking-dead opposition that pose the greatest threat.

Mrs May has shown that she understands this. Appointing George Freeman as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Policy Board was a sensible move towards bringing a wider circle of MPs into the decision-making tent. I expect more of the same at conference.

When she speaks – on Sunday and Wednesday – she would do well to pay tribute to David Cameron. It’s not only right – the Conservatives would not be in government were it not for his work – it’s also the most effective way of calming the Tory MPs already muttering into the tearoom china. In short, she must reach out to all parts of the Conservative family. “Division is death” has to be the mantra.

She will get her first proper taste of what it is to employ Boris Johnson. The Foreign Secretary is a master of mischief at conference and never fails to annoy his leader with off-piste comments and interventions. If Mrs May’s handlers can keep him in check, I, for one, will be full of admiration.

Mrs May must also showcase her team and allow them to show they have worthwhile ideas and can work together as an effective team.

This is even more important given the chatter that suggests the party is now controlled by a cabal led by chiefs-of-staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill. The final decision on Hinkley Point demonstrates that Mr Timothy’s alleged puppet-like control of the PM is overstated. Instead, the pair deserve credit for such a professional job in getting Mrs May’s show on the road.

I always admired Mrs May’s inclination to keep her distance from the media. Unfortunately, the role of a modern PM means that she must engage and explain her thinking more often than she might like. I would expect her team to use conference to help us get to know Mrs May and her vision for our country a little better.

Over the past 12 months, the Conservatives have learnt that politics can change, and change swiftly. Labour is a ship holed below the water line, with a captain who, despite his lack of navigational nous, continues to fight off mutiny. With no enemy to fire at, Mrs May must make sure the party does not turn the cannons on itself.