May successfully rebranded herself as human, rather than a Maybot

We held our breath as she sashayed on stage, waving her arms to Abba’s Dancing Queen. More flashbacks than Flashdance, it was awkward, it was astonishing – it was, in truth, a stroke of genius.

Why? Because after a relentless pummelling from just about everybody over her Chequers Brexit proposal, Theresa May cleverly managed to convey her irrepressibility of spirit without uttering a word.

She joked about having been up all night supergluing the backdrop. But it turned out she had actually spent the small hours finessing a speech intended to superglue not just her party but the whole nation together.

The results may have been light on policy, but her heartfelt intonation and overarching sentiments served as a veritable masterclass in how to make the political highly personal.

In doing so, she not only rebranded herself as a moderate holding the middle ground while fending off extremists Left and Right, but in another first, she came across as a human rather than a Maybot.

There was a refreshing graciousness about her political opponents (at least those in other parties, as enemies within are far more loathsome) and she mentioned Diane Abbott and the late Jo Cox as she pleaded for a return to mutual respect.

She saluted the achievements of Cabinet members who overcame socioeconomic hurdles to reach the highest positions in government.

Whether Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s bus-driving Pakistani father would be allowed into Britain under immigration plans is a moot point, but this was a time for sunny uplands and broad-brushstroke rhetoric, not reality.

And judging by the reaction in the hall, the Prime Minister’s words were just the balm needed for the Tory soul. Much was made afterwards about the fact that not only did she not mention Brexit until her peroration, she avoided the “C” word – Chequers.

‘Nobody could accuse this clergyman’s daughter of self-interest or egoistic ambition’

Much more saliently, she avoided the “B” word; no mention of her nemesisin-waiting, Boris Johnson. Not one. His clowning for the cameras and barnstorming appearance to a 1,500-strong crowd the previous day was the Tory equivalent of a three-ring residency at Las Vegas. But while his supporters had billed him as the headline act, Mrs May astutely refused to grant him the oxygen of publicity. The British public, she had (quite accurately) intimated, were more interested in bread than circuses.

To put it another way, Boris may have had the room but Mrs May had the country. For a full hour she spoke of uniting Britain, feeling pride in what we represent and faith in what we could achieve once we leave the EU.

Her inflections and energy were a mesmerising departure from her rather earnest drone, and a reminder that of all the criticisms levelled at her style and substance, nobody could accuse this clergyman’s daughter of self-interest or egoistic ambition.

She is the assiduous, conscientious head girl, grafting “day and night for the past two years” at the job nobody wants (apart from the former foreign secretary). Throwing the political equivalent of paper aeroplanes and catapulting her with apple cores from the back of class, however amusing, does not convince anyone of Boris’s leadership credentials.

Instead of deferring to Bojo, Theresa talked up our mojo. And what she lacked in granular detail she more than made up for in bumper-sticker positivity, resilience and ingenuity.

So what if she buried the end of austerity so far down her speech, she obviously regarded it as bad news? We had the stirring (if vaguely Stakhanovite) “Patriotism not Nationalism”, “Security, Freedom, Opportunity” and “Corbyn is the Kremlin’s lackey” or something similar.

In her address, Mrs May spoke about the finely balanced supply chain concerns of manufacturing in the event of No Deal. Judging by this human, humane speech, the PM has positioned herself as the only credible politician to deliver a just-in-time Brexit. We must hope.