"Thus this week's Conservative conference in Manchester, with the party at historic lows in the polls, featured a frenzy of policy announcements, on once-successful Tory themes such as tax cuts, law and order, welfare and immigration, that were often made to half-empty rooms. Expanses of blue carpet had been installed in the huge, barn-like convention centre as if to reassure delegates that the party still had an identity yet much of the time they were eerily deserted."
"I don't think the Conservatives are in a position to win, said one delegate, self-protectively referring to his party in the third person. They're in a position to stay alive. The other interjected: If you replace her [leader Kemi Badenoch] now, you're polling at 10%. I think she should resign in 2028. Be a sacrificial lamb. The other nodded. We don't have many [leadership] choices."
The Conservative Party arrived at a Manchester conference while polling at historic lows, prompting a rush of dramatic policy announcements on tax cuts, law and order, welfare and immigration. Large parts of the venue remained empty despite visual efforts to project identity. Delegates privately expressed that the party cannot currently win but may only survive, debating leadership change timing and sacrificial strategies. Membership support for a merger with Reform UK has risen, indicating pressure to erase the party as an independent force. The crisis spans falling popularity, leadership uncertainty, ideological drift, damaged credibility and shrinking talent after seat losses.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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