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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Day one of Conservative conference 2017: as it happened

Theresa May and her husband Philip applauding in the hall at the Conservative conference.
Theresa May and her husband Philip applauding in the hall at the Conservative conference. Photograph: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

Afternoon summary

  • Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, has said that it is a “national outrage” that so many people cannot afford to buy a home. (See 3.47pm.) He made the comment as he announced a four-point plan to improve conditions for people who have to rent: a mandatory ombudsman scheme for landlords; regulation for all letting agents; incentives to encourage landlords to offer longer tenancies; and consultations on a new housing court. (See 3.34pm.)
  • David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, has said he expects the universal credit roll out to continue, despite warnings from Conservative party colleagues that the acceleration of new welfare system should be delayed because of fears about its impact on current claimants. A dozen Tory MPs have raised concerns with the department that claimants are being forced to use food banks because of the mandatory six-week wait for new UC claimants to get cash. Speaking at a fringe event, Gauke indicated that the roll out planned for next week would go ahead, but also suggested claimants needed to be more aware that they could claim emergency advance payments instead of waiting the requisite six weeks. He told the meeting:

I wasn’t involved in the creation of universal credit other than a specific and peripheral way. I am not someone whose political reputation is tied up with universal credit. If I looked at it and thought this is a mistake I would be agitating to do something to stop it. But I don’t.

The reality with advance payments is if you want one you can get it practically straight away. In the most extreme cases if someone says ‘I’m literally down to my last few pounds’ it is possible to do a same day bank transfer. I don’t want anybody who is in need to have to wait six weeks, or sometimes more, to get any kind of payment.

  • Stephen Dorrell, the Conservative former health secretary and European Movement chairman, has said May should grant a second referendum on Brexit. Addressing an anti-Brexit rally in Manchester outside the conference, he said Brexit would be a “historic mistake”. He told the rally:

Many people say to me I’m flying in the face of democracy. What is undemocratic about changing your mind?

There was also a separate, anti-austerity rally outside the conference organised by the People’s Assembly.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, has attacked the “Tory psychodrama” surrounding speculation over Theresa May’s leadership and ruled out standing as a candidate herself. At a fringe meeting she said:

I’m not standing to be the leader of the party. I don’t sit in the House of Commons, let’s get back to why we are here - to talk about the real issues and not about the Tory psychodrama.

Gauke says he would prefer to be chancellor than prime minister

At a fringe meeting David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, said he would rather be chancellor than prime minister. The former chief secretary to the Treasury laughed off suggestions he would like a chance to succeed Theresa May but said that he would prefer to be in Number 11.

Gauke said after the election result, May had showed “a degree of resilience and I look at her and I don’t know I would have that resilience in those circumstances.” He added:

I’m not someone who has ever wanted particularly to do that job.

Asked if he had ambitions to be chancellor, he said:

Maybe one day, I would like to do that. I spent seven years in the Treasury, mostly enjoyable years.

Nick Macpherson, the former Treasury permanent secretary, would approve. He recently posted this on Twitter.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, has welcomed the Conservative party’s decision to raise the threshold at which graduates have to start paying back their tuition fee loans. He said:

Raising the repayment threshold to £25,000 is a reform I have been advocating, so naturally I welcome that pending a broader review of the whole system.

The government also needs to restore student maintenance grants and put more funding into further education colleges.

I just question where this money will coming from. Ministers keep telling us there isn’t a magic money tree. And Brexit will slow growth and reduce tax receipts.

The Conservatives have belatedly discovered that there is a massive problem of unfairness between generations. But much more is needed than a panicky bribe.

A stand-off between police and anti-Tory protesters near the Conservative Party conference has ended peacefully. the Press Association reports. PA says:

Smoke bombs were thrown and demonstrators, some wearing masks to hide their identity, chanted “Let us out!” after police refused to allow a van join the march route because it did not have security clearance.

About 25 police officers lined up to block the road and stood silently as the chants continued.

Police vans and mounted officers were later sent to Liverpool Road as the protesters refused to move, and a force helicopter hovered overhead.

The group was trying to join the People’s Assembly march as it made its way through the centre of Manchester.

After about an hour, police searched the van and allowed it to be driven off.

The tensions erupted as the march set off after a rally at Castlefield Arena.

Hundreds of protesters gathered to call for the Tories to be kicked out of power.

Waving placards and chanting “Oh Jeremy Corbyn”, the crowd took to the streets in protest at austerity.

Public and Commercial Services Union boss Mark Serwotka called for a general strike on public sector pay to “bring the Tories down”, saying Tory policies were “literally killing people”.

Ruth Davidson after delivering her speech to the conference.
Ruth Davidson after delivering her speech to the conference. Photograph: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

Here is the transcript of Andrew Marr’s interview with Theresa May (pdf) this morning. It was probably the most substantial broadcast news interview she has given since the general election.

A banner saying ‘Forward, Reds!’ is held up as people take part in anti-Brexit and anti-austerity protest in Manchester.
A banner saying ‘Forward, Reds!’ is held up as people take part in anti-Brexit and anti-austerity protest in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Andrew RT Davis, the leader of the Conservative group in the Welsh assembly, gave the final conference hall speech of the day.

  • Davies said that Wales could not longer claim to be underfunded because of the steps taken by the government in London.

Thanks to the Conservatives and the leadership of Theresa May, the decades-old complaint about underfunding in Wales is now over.

We’ve signed major city deals in Cardiff and Swansea, and made significant progress on a North Wales Growth Deal.

And in the summer, we had the biggest of the lot – a longstanding thorn in the side of the Welsh economy – scrapping of the Severn Bridge Tolls.

Removing the tolls will deliver a £100million boost to the Welsh economy lifting productivity and prosperity for families and their communities.

  • He criticised Labour’s record running the Welsh government.

And we need to take that threat seriously, because in Wales we’ve seen first-hand what a Labour government can do to our people and communities.

In Labour-run Wales you are twice as likely to be on an NHS waiting list …

… Your children are less likely to achieve Five GCSEs above C …

… And take-home pay is the lowest of all nations in the United Kingdom.

And what about hardworking families looking to buy their own home?

Labour have pulled up the ladder on aspiration scrapping the best housing policy ever delivered – Right to Buy.

A Conservative policy which has done more for social mobility than any Labour government has ever achieved.

My colleague Dan Roberts has been tweeting from the anti-Brexit rally in Manchester.

And this is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth on Ruth Davidson’s speech.

In his speech to the conference James Brokenshire, the Northern Ireland secretary, urged the parties in Northern Ireland to resolve their differences and restore the power-sharing executive. He said:

Over the years, the political parties in Northern Ireland have found a way through the issues that have divided them. They have shown leadership in resolving hugely challenging and sensitive issues. They have created political stability which has been an example to world. As President Clinton said to me recently, we just can’t go backwards. So my message to the parties is now is the time to reach agreement.

ITV’s Robert Peston says Ruth Davidson’s speech was the conference highlight today.

Davidson says imbalance of UK 'getting crazy'

In her speech Davidson also said that the UK was too London-centric and that the imbalance of the UK was “crazy”.

Our Union continues to be far too London-centric.

Compare us to our friends around the world. New York’s global status doesn’t diminish Washington’s political clout, or LA’s creativity, or Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurialism. Instead, America has a cluster of great global cities.

Or look at Germany – where Berlin’s political heft is balanced by the financial hub of Frankfurt and the industry of Munich.

We’re the odd one out – in fact, among major global capitals, only Moscow accounts for a greater share of national product than London.

And this imbalance is getting crazy.

We live in a country where the property values of London’s top 10 boroughs are worth more than all of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales combined.

Where you can sell a three bed semi in Ilford, and buy half of Sutherland.

Where, in a capital city already zooming forward on the jet fuel of high finance, the economy is further boosted by enough civil servants to fill Wembley.

It is time for change – to fulfil the plans we set out at the election this year …

… to give Britain a shake and spread more of our Union outside the capital.

To see our great metropolitan cities have a larger share in the government of our country.

To ensure that – if our civil service and cultural bodies are to claim to be UK institutions - they must be present across our whole United Kingdom.

Davidson said industrial policy, and the relocation of government agencies outside London could address this.

Davidson describes Brexit as a 'power surge that will hit Britain'

In a passage about devolution, Davidson says that a “power surge” will hit the UK after Brexit.

And let’s say it loud and proud – that this is a Union that that does not hoard power to the centre, but has sought to push it out.

And again, did so thanks to a Conservative party which – as Edinburgh, as Cardiff, Manchester and Teeside will attest – is now THE party of devolution.

Not Labour, certainly not the LibDems. Us.

And a party that now wants to use Brexit to go further – to ensure that the power surge that will hit Britain when we leave the EU is felt in Edinburgh, in Cardiff Bay and in Stormont too.

Davidson’s line about Brexit having the effect of a “power surge” was intriguingly ambiguous. Ostensibly she was being positive. But Davidson is on the record as saying she fears Brexit could damage the economy permanently, and she ended up using a metaphor that conjured up images of what might happen if you were to stick your fingers in an electric socket.

Davidson says Tories must 'embrace difference and debate'

Davidson says the Tories must be a party for everyone - including immigrants.

From the people who voted to leave the UK, to the majority who voted to stay…

From the people who voted to remain in the EU to the people who voted to leave.

From the people who can trace their ancestors back through generations, to people who’ve settled here from somewhere else.

… who pursued that innate Conservative instinct to better themselves and their families and build a new life in a new land.

We need to stand together, Not defensive in this diversity and our sometime disagreement – but to be confident in our ability to embrace difference and debate.

Davidson says the Tories must stand for social mobility.

These people are looking to us for answers - and for action to make their lives easier.

It’s our duty to deliver.

Also, to make our country fairer.

To make it clear: this party isn’t there for those at the top of the ladder – this party is a ladder.

Davidson says Tories can burst the Corbyn bubble

Davidson says a Labour victory is not inevitable.

I have watched, with incredulity, the response to the Labour party conference this week.

Commentators, who should know better, declaring Jeremy Corbyn as a shoo-in to number 10, just because Glastonbury chanted his name to the White Stripes. Folks, he hasnae even won a raffle.

Well, conference I have been here before and I can tell you how this story ends.

I have watched as Nicola Sturgeon sold out rock venues. As she released a line of signature clothing. As she sold foam fingers to the faithful so they could point at the sky as she flew in a helicopter she’d slapped her face on, over their heads.

I’ve read the commentary that said her momentum was irresistible, that everything would be swept before her ...

Just as the SNP came crashing down to earth. Just as they lost 40 per cent of their seats in June. Just as half a million Scots chose to take their vote away. So too can the Corbyn bubble burst, but only if we work hard to make it so.

Because, you know what? People tire of being offered free unicorns. Of easy promises that don’t add up.

They want serious solutions to the issues facing their world.

Updated

Ruth Davidson's speech

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, is speaking now. On the basis of how she starts, it is the only first-rate speech we’ve heard so far.

She starts with a joke.

It’s great to be here in Manchester. Or as I call it, the Southern powerhouse.

She recalls the Conservative campaign in Scotland in 2015.

We started with one MP. We ended with one MP.

We’d survived the SNP tsunami, but were no further forward than when we began.

…we were still outgunned by those sodding pandas.

Then she goes on:

This time, it was different. This time people were looking for a serious alternative to a nationalism that had let down our schools and was more concerned with division than delivery.

And we went from one MP to 13. Our best result in decades.

After years of heroically holding the line on his own, suddenly David Mundell got some company.

The pandas are going to have to go some, to catch up now...

That may be the first time that the Tory conference has been exposed to a panda shagging joke.

Javid says it is 'national outrage' and Tory 'failure' that so many people can't afford a house

In his speech Sajid Javid announced a series of measures intended to help people renting their homes. He said that although the Conservatives were committed to boosting home ownership, they also had to face up to the “hard fact” that many people had to rent because they could not afford a home.

On the subject of home ownership, he said the fact that it was so hard for people to buy a home now was “a national outrage”.

The injustices in our housing market go beyond social housing.

For my generation home ownership was something that, if you worked hard enough, you could afford.

It was something you could earn.

An opportunity available to everyone, from every background.

Like my parents, when they moved to the UK, who bought their first home for just £500.

For too many growing up today things are very different.

Walk down any high street and you’ll see young people with their faces pressed against an estate agent’s window.

Trying, and failing, to find a home they can afford.

For them, increasingly, a house seems like something that you have to inherit.

The opportunity my generation took for granted now seems lost to many.

This is a national outrage.

And the biggest barrier to social progress in our country today.

It’s no wonder that we see so many young people angry, feeling left behind.

This is a clear injustice at the very heart of our society.

But the problem is not that we have a market.

The problem is that we have a market that is broken.

For decades our planning system has failed to plan for the number of homes we need.

Javid also said that it was because of the Tories’ failure on housing that Jeremy Corbyn was being taken seriously.

It’s a mark of our failure on housing that the Labour party, a Party led by Jeremy Corbyn, is being taken seriously again.

Sajid Javid speaking at the conference.
Sajid Javid speaking at the conference. Photograph: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

Javid said government considering setting up new housing court

Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, is speaking now. He has got four housing announcements in the speech (although some were trailed overnight.) This is from the CCHQ press release explaining them.

• We will make it mandatory for every landlord to be part of an ombudsman scheme, either directly, or through a letting agent. At the moment landlords, unlike letting agents, are not required to sign up to ombudsman (redress) schemes. We will change the law so that this becomes a requirement, giving all tenants access to quick and easy dispute resolution over issues like repairs and maintenance.

• We will require all letting agents to be regulated in order to practice. Currently, anyone can operate as a letting agent without any qualifications or professional oversight. We will change the law so that all letting agents must register with an appropriate organisation. This will mean that letting agents would be required to satisfy minimum training requirements and comply with an industry code of conduct.

• We will create new incentives for landlords who offer longer term tenancies. Working with the Treasury we will announce at the autumn budget a new set of incentives for landlords who offer tenancies of at least 12 months.

• We will consult with the judiciary on the case for a new housing court to streamline the current system. We will explore whether a new housing court could improve existing court processes, reduce dependence on legal representation and encourage arbitration, with benefits for both tenants and landlords. We will consult with the judiciary on whether the introduction of a new housing court can meet the aim of saving time and money in dealing with disputes.

Justine Greening, the education secretary, used her speech to the conference to announce a series of modest measures intended to help schools and improve teacher retention. They were:

  • Piloting a new student loan reimbursement programme for science and modern foreign language teachers in the early years of their careers. In a briefing note the Tories said:

The pilot scheme will benefit around 800 MFL and 1,700 science teachers a year. A typical teacher in their fifth year of work would benefit by around £540 through reimbursement – in addition to £360 from the newly-announced student loan repayment threshold rise from £21,000 to £25,000 – and this would be more for teachers with additional responsibilities.

  • Piloting new bursaries for maths teachers, with upfront payments of £20,000 and early retention payments of £5,000 in the third and fifth year of a teacher’s career. Sums of £7,500 would also be available to encourage the best maths teachers to teach in more challenging schools, the Tories said.
  • £30m for schools that struggle with teacher recruitment and retention.
  • A £6m investment to expand maths hubs.
  • A new national network of English hubs, focusing on early language and literacy, starting with £12m in the north.


Anti-austerity protesters in Manchester, marching to coincide with the opening of the Conservative conference.
Anti-austerity protesters in Manchester, marching to coincide with the opening of the Conservative conference. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Green says Labour is 'a nasty party' and 'a front operation for the hard left'

Damian Green, the first secretary of state, spoke after Sir Patrick McLoughlin. His speech was a broad and general defence of the government’s record, most notable for what he said about Labour.

  • Green claimed that the Labour party was a “nasty party’ and “a front operation for the hard left”.

[Labour] is a front operation for the hard left. A Labour party with MPs that abuse Prince Harry for his service in Afghanistan, and that tolerates an under-current of antisemitism. There was a time when we needed to be warned about sounding nasty. I tell you there is still a nasty party in Britain in 2017 and it’s called the Labour party.

  • He said claims that the Tories were unfeeling were “fake news”.

So let’s be clear that when the Labour Party tries to paint us as unfeeling and hard-hearted, they are Britain’s biggest purveyor of fake news. We are helping more people into work than ever, allowing more mental health trained professionals to treat patients than ever, seeing more children from disadvantaged backgrounds go to university than ever.

That’s modern compassionate Conservatism in action, and Labour’s Twitter trolls can go and stick that in their timeline.

Damian Green addressing the conference.
Damian Green addressing the conference. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Here are some pictures from the anti-Brexit march.

Demonstrators march through the city during a protest on the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester.
Demonstrators march through the city during a protest on the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters
A lorry carrying charicatures of politicians is driven through the city on the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester.
A lorry carrying charicatures of politicians is driven through the city on the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters
A protestor plays ‘Ode to Joy’ on the saxophone during an anti-Brexit march on the first day of the Conservative party.
A protestor plays ‘Ode to Joy’ on the saxophone during an anti-Brexit march on the first day of the Conservative party. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

The Scottish secretary, David Mundell, has just been very rude about Boris Johnson at a Tory fringe event, albeit in an amusing and slightly roundabout way.

Mundell was on a panel of Scottish Conservative MPs and MEPs discussing how the party could better connect with young voters, and they were asked how he thought Johnson would go down with young Scottish people if he became leader.

Mundell said the panel would not be answering “hypothetical questions”, but added:

I do recall that Boris Johnson once stood as rector of Edinburgh university. You can look at the results of that.

This brought laughter from the audience, and it’s easy to understand why: it was not a race which went well for the then-shadow higher education secretary back in 2006.

Showered with beer and greeted with chants of “Bog off Boris, you top-up Tory,” when he visited the university, he eventually finished a fairly distant third in the race behind Green MSP Mark Ballard and journalist Magnus Linklater, beating only the radical filmmaker John Pilger.

Davidson, when asked earlier about Johnson, said only she did not to talk about “Tory psychodrama”, but hailed the success of the Tories in Scotland.

She said:

We are a party on the up in Scotland. We’ve got a clear purpose, and that is to spend the next three years to show that we can be the next government of Scotland.

Another of the speakers, the newly-elected Conservative MP Paul Masterton, said the party must do more to appeal to young voters. He said:

People now think that they will be more prosperous and secure under a hard-line Labour government, than under a Conservative government. That shouldn’t worry us - that should shame us, and we have to have really serious discussions as a party as to how it got to that point.

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has published a new election analysis this morning arguing that that Brexit has reshaped political loyalties. Age and education are now key dividing lines, it says.

Here is an excerpt from the blog.

As analysis of data collected by NatCen’s unique random probability panel shows, rather than just having two main political groupings, Britain now has no less than six.

Just two of these groups are distinguished by how left-wing or right-wing they are:

• Comfortable Britain (26% of the electorate): Mostly older people in professional occupations and who own their own home. They typically have relatively right-wing views, but are not especially concerned about immigration.

• Traditional Working Class (14%): Older working class voters who are relatively left-wing but are not especially socially liberal.

Three of the groups are distinguished primarily by their age and/or educational background and by how socially liberal or conservative they are:

• Liberal Elite (18%): Mostly graduates in professional occupations who are socially liberal and voted heavily to remain in the EU.

• Liberal Youth (16%): These are mostly younger people in middle-level non-graduate jobs and tend to think of themselves as working class. They are relatively liberal and positive about immigration.

• Socially Left Behind (11%): Middle aged and older working class voters (together with some small employers) who are not particularly right-wing but are socially conservative, concerned about immigration and nearly all voted Leave.

Meanwhile, one group consists of young voters who are relatively disengaged from any kind of politics:

• Young, disaffected JAMs (16%): Younger working class voters with mixed views whose main distinguishing characteristic is that half did not vote in 2015.

The NatCen blog has a chart showing how each of these groups voted in the general election, and whether the Tories or Labour were gained or lost votes amongst these groups between 2015 and 2017.

NatCen chart

NatCen says:

Labour support was highest – and increased most since 2017 – amongst the two most socially liberal groups in Britain – the Liberal Elite and Liberal Youth. Meanwhile, although the Conservatives retained their support amongst the relatively right-wing voters who belong to Comfortable Britain, the party advanced most amongst a very different group - socially left behind voters who are concerned about immigration who hitherto had been the bedrock of support for Ukip.

McLoughlin says general election result 'secured the union'

Here are some more lines from Sir Patrick McLoughlin’s speech.

  • McLoughlin, the party chairman, said that although the general election result was disappointing, the Tories did win. And they acheived “some remarkable results”, he said.

We increased our share of the vote for the fifth election in a row.

We won seats like Stoke on Trent South and Mansfield. We haven’t held a Stoke seat since 1935, until Jack Brereton. We’ve never won Mansfield before - until Ben Bradley.

  • He claimed that the the Tories “securing the union” with Scotland with their election result.

We achieved a tremendous result in Scotland, winning thirteen seats where we only had one. With Ruth and the prime minister, we have secured the Union. And - conference. Alec Salmond was defeated by Colin Clark, the new Conservative member of parliament for Gordon.

Because of your hard work, we’ve been joined by new MPs. Lee Rowley in North East Derbyshire, Simon Clarke in Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland. Kirstene Hair in Angus.

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, made the same claim in an interview with the Times on Saturday.

  • McLoughlin said that, as party chairman, he was reintroducing contributions from the floor at this year’s conference.
  • He defended the government’s record on tax and employment.

When we came to office in 2010, the Labour government took income tax from people earning just £6,500.

In 2017, taxpayers don’t start paying income tax until they earn £11,500 thanks to Conservatives in government.

It means that a basic rate tax payer keeps over £1,000 more of their earnings each year.

In 2010, under Labour, unemployment was at almost 8%. Now, under the Conservatives, it’s at just over 4%.

It means more people in work, earning a pay packet and supporting their family.

In 2010, under Labour, corporation tax was 28%. Now, under the Conservatives, it’s 19%.

In the last year that Labour were in power, it brought in £36.6 billion and in 2016 it brought in £49 billion. Despite cutting the rate.

McLoughlin also said it was 40 years since he attended his first conference. The 1977 one was famous for the speech William Hague delivered as a schoolboy.

McLoughlin tells Tories they had some 'outstanding' election results - in local elections

Sir Patrick McLoughin, the Conservative chair, is giving a speech to open conference proceedings.

Some of the election results were “outstanding”, he says. He is talking about the local elections.

We had brilliant local election results. We also had a general election that nobody expected to take place. We did not get the result we hoped for.

Ahead of those local elections in May, I was out with our members across the country.

I saw the hard work and dedication of our volunteers and our candidates.

It is because of you that we achieved some outstanding results, winning overall control of ten more councils, gaining over five hundred and fifty councillors.

For a sitting government, it was an incredible result.

We took overall control of Lincolnshire. Norfolk. Cambridgeshire. Gloucestershire. East Sussex. Suffolk. Warwickshire. The Isle of Wight. Lancashire.

In my own county, Derbyshire, we delivered a majority of ten on the County Council - something that has not happened in decades.

Katie Perrior, who used to be Theresa May’s communications director in Number 10 until the general election, has described the policy offering announced overnight as “mediocre”, the BBC’s John Pienaar says.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, has been addressing the anti-Brexit rally in Manchester. He told the crowd:

We are in Manchester because the Conservative party are here and we want them to hear our voices – to tell Theresa May and Boris Johnson that we are not ‘citizens of nowhere’, but people who are proud to be British, and proud to be European.

We must tell the government what is at stake here.

Take the great research institutions in Manchester, such as the National Graphene Institute developing a new wonder material. Or the Human Brain Project. Or Cancer Research – each have received €1bn in EU funding, the largest research commitments the EU has ever made: what is their future?

Sir Vince Cable with protesters assembling for a anti-Brexit rally in Manchester.
Sir Vince Cable with protesters assembling for a anti-Brexit rally in Manchester. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Armed police officers stand near the conference centre on the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester.
Armed police officers stand near the conference centre on the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

May won't lead Tories into next election, say Heseltine and Shapps

Damian Green, the first secretary of state, claimed this morning that Theresa May could lead the party into the next election. (See 12.37pm.)

But Grant Shapps, the Conservative former party chairman, told Peston on Sunday that Green was wrong. Shapps said:

[Green] has got to say that, in the same way that she does. But if you run any organisation ... and something goes monumentally wrong, as it did at the election ... the buck does have to stop with that individual.

The reality is that every serious person, every serious MP, every commentator knows she can’t lead us into the next election. Of course she can’t.

Lord Heseltine, the Conservative former deputy prime minister, said the same thing on the BBC’s Sunday Politics. Asked about the prospect of May still being leader at the time of the next election, he replied:

I don’t think there is any prospect of that.

There are two rallies in Manchester today to coincide with the start of the Conservative party conference: A pro-European one, and a People’s Assembly anti-austerity one.

Here are some of the People’s Assembly protesters.

Protesters take part in an anti-austerity demonstration organised by The People’s Assembly in Manchester.
Protesters take part in an anti-austerity demonstration organised by The People’s Assembly in Manchester. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Green implicitly rebukes Boris Johnson for disloyalty

Damian Green, the first secretary of state and thus the de facto deputy prime minister, has been giving various interviews this morning. Here are the key points.

  • Green implicitly rebuked Boris Johnson for disloyalty. Asked on Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics if he had told Johnson not to air his Brexit differences with Theresa May in public, Green said he did not discuss private conversations in public. He went on:

I am happy to make a general point that it is understandable that any group of politicians faced with a big issue will have a range of views.

It is extremely sensible when you are in government to express those views in private rather than public.

It’s advice for everyone. It’s advice for all my colleagues at all times. That if you feel strongly about something then make your pitch in private. And then, when the government has come to a collective decision, stick to it.

Green said that Johnson had “huge strengths” but that he should abide by collective cabinet responsibility. He said:

I think Boris clearly has huge strengths. He is an asset to the government. He is an asset to the party.

But, on Brexit, the government’s policy was agreed by the whole cabinet and was shown in the Florence speech which the Prime Minister made a couple of weeks ago and that’s our policy, and that’s what remains our policy.

We know that Boris likes giving interviews and writing articles, but the government’s policy is absolutely clear, it’s what was in the Florence speech.

  • Green defended May’s decision not to sack Johnson. When it was put to him that May should sack Johnson, Green replied:

No, Boris clearly has huge talents and having him in the cabinet gives us those strengths.

Inevitably on big issues people will express views. Boris has a good record as mayor of London, so it’s a good thing to have him in the cabinet.

  • Green said he “absolutely” believes May will lead the party into the next election in 2022. He also said he expected speculation about her leadership to be laid to rest. He said:

I think it will be and I think it needs to be for the sake of the country.

It doesn’t help our negotiating team in Brussels to have constant speculation, so I think it will stop and I think it has to stop as well.

She has a big agenda that she wants to get through. Clearly the election didn’t go well, but we now have four and a half years ahead of us in which we can not only get the Brexit deal that’s best for the country but also implement that domestic agenda.

Damian Green.
Damian Green. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Here are some of the anti-Brexit campaigners who have come to Manchester for a rally to coincide with the Tory conference.

Anti-Brexit campaigners are holding a rally in Manchester to coincide with the Conservative conference. Here they are in assembling All Saints Park.
Anti-Brexit campaigners are holding a rally in Manchester to coincide with the Conservative conference. Here they are in assembling All Saints Park. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Grant Shapps, the former Conservative party chairman, told Peston on Sunday that he thought the Pickles report (see 11.35am) was “very sensible”, but that it did not acknowledge how bad the manifesto was. He told the programme:

What it doesn’t say is that the main problem in the campaign was that we had a manifesto that dared you to vote for us, telling our own supporters ‘If you’re brave enough, vote for us and we’ll do a bunch of very nasty things, in terms of your old-age pensions and the rest of it. We dare you to do it’. It’s not a good place to be.

Heseltine says Boris Johnson's Brexit argument are 'phony' and 'duplicitious'

Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister and arch pro-European, has been giving interviews this morning. Boris Johnson succeeded him as MP for Henley, but Heseltine is a fierce critic of Johnson’s and today he accused Johnson of peddling “phoney” and “duplicitous” arguments and creating an “unsustainable” position for the cabinet.

Heseltine told Sky’s Sunday with Paterson:

The whole thing is unsustainable - you cannot have a government in which members of the cabinet are voicing opinions which are not consistent, one with the other.

He said Johnson’s Brexit arguments were bogus.

I understand those arguments but they are phony, they are duplicitous.

Look at Bombardier, what’s going on there - that’s the real world of international trade, as anybody who has spent any time in the export market fully understands.

Talking about a world hungry for new British exporters to suddenly come over the horizon is just talking about something that doesn’t exist.

Heseltine, who resigned from Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, said Johnson ought to resign. Heseltine said:

I resigned, I think it’s very difficult for Boris to go on making the sort of interventions he is and remain in the government.

But Heseltine said he could understand why Theresa May had not sacked him yet.

Leaving him there until he completely oversteps the mark is a wise thing to do.

Tory election post-mortem calls for changes to way manifesto drawn up

The Conservative party has published its review of the general election, conducted by the former communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles. You can read it here.

Pickles has written a blog about it here, for ConservativeHome.

And here is the Press Association story about what it says.

A Conservative post-mortem of the June 8 general election has recommended changes to the way the manifesto is drawn up, in order to ensure it is fully backed by senior figures across the party.

The proposal for a new manifesto committee - one of 126 recommendations in the report by former minister Pickles - comes after reports that Theresa May did not consult Cabinet colleagues over key elements of the 2017 manifesto, including the controversial “dementia tax”.

Pickles found that the election, which saw Tories increase their share of the vote to 42% but lose their overall majority in the House of Commons, revealed “a clear campaigning deficiency” in the party and the need for “a fundamental re-evaluation” of the way it runs campaigns.

He called for changes to attract more young people and members of ethnic minorities to join and support the Conservatives.

He also put forward plans to prepare more effectively for future polls, including starting the process of drawing up a manifesto within 12 months of the last election.

The creation of a Conservative manifesto committee appears to be designed in response to complaints that May and close advisers Nicholas Timothy and Fiona Hill were not open enough with senior ministers and party officials about the content of this year’s platform for election.

Pickles states that the committee should included the PM, chancellor, home secretary, foreign secretary, party chairman and chief executive and chief whip - or their equivalents in opposition - as well as up to three others appointed by the leader.

Crucially, it states that all secretaries of state must be consulted on every issue relating to their area of responsibility before proposals are included in the manifesto, and must be able to appeal to the committee against any measures he or she objects to.

However, it adds that the leader’s right to hold the final say on manifesto contents is “unaffected”.

In response to the swing in young people’s votes towards Labour at the June poll, the report calls for the creation of a “vibrant youth wing” in the Conservatives and says there must always be under-30 representation on the party board and on candidate selection panels.

Before any new policy is announced, there should be active consideration of its relevance to young people, Pickles found.

He also called for an increase in the number of candidates who are women or from diverse backgrounds, including ethnic minorities, admitting that the Conservatives have not done enough to engage with Britain’s black and ethnic minority communities.

Pickles acknowledged that, despite the Tories achieving their best share of votes since 1983, “the only numbers that count” in a general election are the MPs elected.

With an overall loss of 13 seats, it was a “glum” night for the Tories, with only the improved performance in Scotland providing some cheer.

However, the former communities secretary said he decided not to produce a report full of “blame and recrimination” or “sensational stories about what went wrong behind closed doors”, but was aiming to make the party “stronger and more adept and campaigning”.

“At this election I felt the loss of our seats, along with colleagues I had worked with, very keenly,” said Pickles. “That has not blinded me into the delusion that one thing caused our setback.

“Many of the problems we encountered have been present at previous general elections, in some degree or another. I hope that this is a frank and unblinking look at our party, which will set a series of reforms in motion.”

Sir Eric Pickles.
Sir Eric Pickles. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Updated

When he was interviewed by the Observer, Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, conveniently claimed he was out of time when asked if he thought Theresa May should lead the party into the next general election.

He now seems to have had time to clarify his thinking. In an interview this morning he expressed his “absolute confidence” in May and said he fully expects her to lead the Conservatives into the next election. He told BBC Radio 5’s John Pienaar show:

That’s what I desire, and that’s what I expect. She has the backing of her the cabinet her ministers, the party, we are all united.

Javid dismissed the idea Boris Johnson was seeking to undermine May, and used the Boris-as-naughty-spaniel excuse common nowadays from ministers to explain the foreign secretary’s manoeuvres on Brexit. He said:

We all know Boris, he can get a bit excited now and again. But the fundamental point is, he’s someone just like me and everyone else in the cabinet that is backing the PM in this agenda that we’ve got.

While he talked up the Tories’ new youth-targeted policies such as an expansion of the help to buy scheme, Javid did concede the party had been guilty of neglecting younger people over housing. He said:

I think all governments, including previous Conservative governments, have not taken this issue seriously enough in the past. We have been listening too much to those people that are against development under any circumstance. They bought their homes 20, 30, 40 years ago, they’re sitting on a nice nest egg and they don’t want to see the next generation go ahead. And that has been completely wrong, and we have recognised that.

May's interview with Marr - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

Here is some comment on Theresa May’s Andrew Marr interview from journalists.

From Sky’s Beth Rigby

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

From the Times’ Sam Coates

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From the Guardian’s John Harris

From ITV’s Paul Brand

From the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

Theresa May's interview with Andrew Marr - Summary

Here are the main points from Theresa May’s interview with Andrew Marr.

  • May refused to deny that Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has become “unsackable”. Johnson yesterday used an interview with the Sun to set out four personal red lines for Brexit, all of which go beyond the cabinet position set out in May’s Florence speech and at least one of which may prove to be impossible. Asked if he was now unsackable, May laughed at the question and just said he was “absolutely behind” the plan for Brexit she set out in Florence. She did not use the line she used in July, when she was in a stronger position and told LBC: “There’s no such thing as an unsackable minister.”
  • She rejected claims the cabinet was divided over Brexit, describing it as “united”. She said:

What I have is a cabinet that are united in the mission of this government, and that is what you will see this week.

  • She refused to say whether she would or would not resign if she failed to get a Brexit deal. She just said she wanted to ensure there was a deal.
  • She refused to say whether or not the UK would accept any changes to EU law introduced during the two-year transition period she is proposing. She said in Florence that existing EU law would apply to the UK during this period, but it is not clear whether the UK will also agree to accept new EU regulation introduced between March 2019 and March 2021. The EU’s Brexit negotiating guidelines imply that the UK would have to accept new rules. As one of his four red lines (and probably the most significant one), Johnson said this would be unacceptable. Asked about this, May refused to say one way or the other what would happen, and said this was a matter for the negotiation.
  • She said that she was “sorry” the election did not produce the result that she wanted, but she refused to explicitly apologise for her decision to call it. Asked if she would be apologising to the party, she said:

I have been very clear that I called the election, I led the election, I take the responsibility and I am sorry that some very good members of parliament lost their seats and some very good candidates didn’t gain seats.

I have spoken to my members of parliament and I will be speaking later today to the party activists.

When it was put to her that being sorry about something was not the same as apologising, she just repeated the line about being sorry.

In a separate interview, Damian Green, her close ally and the first secretary of state, said May would apologise when she addresses the national Conservative convention behind closed doors.

In her Marr interview May also refused to accept that calling the election was a mistake. When it was put to her that this was a mistake, she replied:

No. Is it ever a mistake to give people the opportunity to vote? I don’t think so.

  • She refused to rule out replacing tuition fees with a graduate tax. This is a proposal that the Lib Dems are actively pursuing. May said the government would review tuition fee policy. She would not rule out a graduate tax, but she did not express enthusiasm for the idea either.
  • She refused to commit to delaying the roll out of universal credit. She said the overall principle behind universal credit was good, and that it was important to roll it out. She acknowledged there were problems with the system. But she said the department for work and pensions was looking at these and that performance was improving.
  • She said she could understand why Southern Railway passengers favoured renationalisation. But overall privatisation of rail had been a success, she said. She said there was more reliability and better choice.
Theresa May being interviewed by Andrew Marr.
Theresa May being interviewed by Andrew Marr. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Here is the video of Theresa May’s initial response when asked if Boris Johnson has become “unsackable”.

Updated

Theresa May refuses to deny that Boris Johnson has become 'unsackable'

The best line was probably the one that came out right at the end.

  • Theresa May refuses to deny that Boris Johnson has become “unsackable”.

I will post a snap summary of the main points from the interview shortly.

Updated

Q: Do you accept it was a mistake to call the election?

May says it is always good to give people a choice.

She says she did not get the result she wanted.

Q: Your cabinet are fighting. One minister said you should sack Boris Johnson. Do you accept there is a problem?

May says the cabinet is united in its mission. It backs the Brexit position she put in her Florence speech.

Q: If it is a nest of singing birds, it has one enormous cuckoo in it. Johnson is saying you must do this, this and this. How can you tolerate this?

May says Johnson is behind the Florence speech.

Q: Is Boris unsackable?

May does not answer yes or no. She says they are united.

And that’s it.

Updated

Q: What will you do if there is no deal?

May says she hopes there will be a deal.

Q: Business people are scared witless of there being no deal. What will happen?

May says government departments are looking at this.

Q: No deal would be so bad for this country, people say. If you can’t get a deal, will you resign.

May says she is working to get a deal.

The deal that works for the UK will also work for the EU.

Q: I’m asking you straight questions, and you are not answering. [Marr plays the “nothing has changed” clip from her election press conference.] Your own advisers were aghast at that point. Why don’t you admit things have changed?

May says she has announced a change to tuition fees.

The point she was making during the election was that the principle behind that system had not changed.

Q: During the transition period, if EU law changes, will we accept those changes?

May says the use of the word implies the UK might not leave.

She says by the time the UK leaves, the UK will know where it is heading.

She says there will be a two-year implementation period to implement Brexit.

Q: And, if EU laws change during that period?

May says the EU law will continue to apply.

Q: But what happens if EU law, affecting, say, banking changes?

May says this will be a matter for the negotiation.

Q: So that is not a yes or a no.

May says she is heading into a negotiation.

Updated

Q: You spoke to Angela Merkel this week. Does she think your Florence speech changed things?

May says she thinks the speech has unblocked things. That was clear from what Michel Barnier at the end of his press conference on Thursday.

Q: The EU says the European court of justice must continue to have a role safeguarding the rights of EU nationals.

May says the UK courts would take account of ECJ judgments.

Updated

Q: Two thirds of people want rail renationalised. Can you tell people privatisation is working.

May says she can understand why people think that, especially if they are a Southern Railways customer.

But she can remember what the trains were like under nationalisation. The service is better now. There is better reliability and better choice.

Q: Louise Casey, the former civil servant, has criticised the way this is being handled. She says some families will lose their children.

May says overall the reform is a good one.

But as it is rolled out, the government must address the problems.

Q: The BBC recently interviewed a woman with 4p left because she was not getting her UC.

May says she accepts there are problems. The government is looking at this. Performance has been improving, she says.

Q: With the rollout of universal credit, some people will get no money for six weeks. How will people eat?

May says she recognises there is a problem. David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, is looking at this.

Q: Could you pause the rollout?

May says it is important to roll out the system. But the government needs to address these issues too, she says.

Updated

May says the government will incentivise landlords to offer longer tenancies.

And it will also offer new safeguards for tenants.

Q: During the election you said there was no magic money tree. But in the last few minutes you have spent about £12bn. Where is the money coming from?

May says the government will set out its plan in its budget.

Q: Average weekly wages have fallen. People feel worse off because they are worse off. And if you are under 40 your chances of saving for a deposit for a house are worse then ever.

May says she recognises that.

The focus of the party conference will be a party that works for everyone.

The Conservatives want to ensure every generation can be better off than the last one.

That is why the government is focusing on housing.

Q: How much extra money is there for housing?

£10bn, says May.

Q: And where will the money come from?

May says the government will set out its plans in its budget.

May says the government is dealing with the deficit, and also putting more money into services.

And there are 3m more people in work, she says.

Q: What is the average wage at the moment?

May says average earnings are around £25,000.

Q: The average weekly wage is £505. Has it gone up or down on your wage.

May says people are feeling a squeeze on their incomes.

Q: Could you end up with the taxpayer paying most of these fees. Labour would get the taxpayer to pay the entire sum.

May says Labour wants people who don’t go to university to pay for those who do.

She says people who go to university make contributions to society. But so are people who don’t go to university.

Q: People have debts of up to £50,000. Will that debt be affected?

May says the government is making two changes: raising the repayment threshold. That will be worth £30 a month, she says.

Q: To students who are watching, compared to the banquet Jeremy Corbyn is offering, that will sound like a dry biscuit.

May says Labour cannot afford its banquet.

At the Labour conference Labour themselves said they would bankrupt the economy.

Q: They did not say that.

They said there would be a run on the pound, says May.

Q: Do you accept the tuition fee announcement is an U-turn?

May sidesteps the question.

This is not just an issue for students, she says. Parents and grandparents worry about the debt being built up too.

She summarises the policy.

Q: You defended that policy for years. Was that a faiure?

May says the policy has meant there is money for university.

Q: So why are you freezing it?

May says the govenrment expected universities to vary their fees. That has not happened.

So the government will look at it again.

Q: Will you consider a graduate tax?

May says the government is looking at the policy again.

May refuses to issue direct apology to Conservative party for the election result.

Theresa May is here.

Q: Can you apologise to your party for what happened at the election?

May starts with a long spiel about the conference.

Then she says she takes responsibility for the election. She is sorry some good candidates last their seats.

Q: Being sorry is not the same as apologising. Can you apologise to the party?

May says she has spoken to MPs. She will be speaking later today to activists.

She has worked for the party all her life.

She is sorry the result was not the one they wanted.

  • May refuses to issue direct apology to Conservative party for the election result.

And this, from MLex’s Matthew Holehouse, is good.

Theresa May will be on the Marr Show in a moment. Here is an assessment from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

Here is Sky News’s political editor Faisal Islam on the Conservatives Help to Buy announcement. (See 8.45am.)

Q: Why did you organise at Brighton to stop a debate on Brexit?

There was lots of debate about Brexit.

Q: But no vote.

There was a vote on the NEC statement on Brexit, Lansman says.

He says Labour wanted to focus on other issues.

Q: There has been a lot of debate about antisemitism in Labour. As a Jew yourself, how do you feel about that?

Lansman says antisemitism is a problem throughout society. It would be strange if that were not a problem for Labour too. That is why he is so please the NEC passed a new rule change addressing this.

Q: So what do you feel when you hear people like Len McCluskey and Ken Loach saying it is not a problem in Labour?

Lansman says you have to be a Jew to experience anti-semitism. He knows it is a problem.

On the Marr Show Andrew Marr is interviewing Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum.

Q: Would you say you are a revolutionary?

No, says Lansman. He is someone who wants to transform society.

Q: Radical socialist?

Lansman says he is happy with that.

Q: In the 1970s and 1980s people on the left seemed to hate each other more than the Tories. Is that still an issue?

Lansman says he has learnt a lesson from that. “We have put that behind us,” he says. Labour is now a united party.

He says Momentum campaigned for candidates from all wings of the party.

Q: What is your message to MPs worried about being deselected?

Lansman says Momentum is organised in all constituencies. It wants to unseat Tory MPs.

Here is some reaction to the tuition fees announcement. (See 8.45am.)

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said this was “a desperate attempt by the Tories to kick the issue into the long grass”. She said:

The fact Theresa May thinks she can win over young people by pledging to freeze tuition fees only weeks after increasing them to 9,250 shows just how out of touch she is.

Another commission to look at tuition fees is a desperate attempt by the Tories to kick the issue into the long grass because they have no plans for young people and no ideas for our country. They are yesterday’s party.

The next Labour government will scrap tuition fees entirely and introduce a National Education Service for lifelong learning for the many, not the few.

This is from the Labour MP Luke Pollard.

This is from the Labour peer Andrew Adonis, a former education minister.

But Martin Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, has welcomed the move. He posted this response on Twitter.

This is what Sir Patrick McLoughlin, the Conservative chairman, told BBC Breakfast this morning about the tuition fees announcement. He said:

I think it will reassure people that they won’t have to start paying back their loan until they earn a good salary.

It was the Labour party that introduced tuition fees and it was the Labour party that said they were necessary to see expansion.

We’ve listened, we’ve accepted that there was very great concern. We are taking a very balanced approach and doing what is affordable.

A Conservative MP has said the party’s conference in Manchester is being targeted by “fascists” after pictures circulated on social media of a banner reading: “Hang the Tories”, the Press Association reports. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and local Labour MPs denounced the banner, which was strung across a footbridge with two human effigies dangling by their necks below, PA says. It goes on:

Theresa May’s party is facing a weekend of protests in Manchester, with a national anti-austerity demonstration expected to attract thousands on Sunday and a cross-party pro-European rally due to be addressed by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable and Tory ex-minister Stephen Dorrell.

Delegates arriving at Manchester Piccadilly station on Saturday evening ahead of the conference at the Manchester Central Convention Complex were greeted by an “unwelcome party” protest led by a choir singing anti-Tory songs.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the banner, which was ironically described as “charming” by Conservative MP Michael Fabricant.

Andy Burnham condemned the banner on Twitter.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has denied a claim in last week’s Sunday Times that he sent Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, a text on election night offering to support him as a future leader. Hammond said:

I do not recognise the words, or indeed the sentiment, that I saw written in the Sunday Times.

When you read the article carefully, it didn’t say, ‘The text said 100% behind you’. Instead, it reads, ‘Boris said I’ve had a text from Phil Hammond - he’s 100% behind me’ - not quoting me, but interpreting me ...

It’s completely against my character to write down anything like that. I do not write people texts of that description.

The Conservative party conference starts in Manchester today and last night the staff at CCHQ were doubtless checking the #tomorrowspaperstoday hashtag to see what sort of media backdrop they face, and how their overnight policy announcements have gone down. They found one splash they liked so much that they retweeted it.

The Sunday Telegraph’s front page is also reasonably positive - although, as we’ll see in a moment, it may also win a prize for the most elastic use of the word “revolution”.

But, after that, it started to get a lot worse. Here are the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, two papers that in normal circumstances are well disposed towards the Conservatives.

As ever, for the most reliable overview, you can’t beat the Guardian/Observer. We think Theresa May arrives at her conference in a perilous position. Here is the Observer front page.

And here is the Observer splash.

The Observer story also contains details of the three announcements made by the party overnight.

Amid growing signs that cabinet discipline is breaking down and support for the prime minister is draining away, May will announce a series of policy changes in the hope of halting her party’s potentially disastrous loss of support among voters under 45. These will include freezing tuition fees, which are due to rise with inflation from £9,250 in 2017-18 to about £9,500 in 2018-19, while ministers look again at the system.

She will also announce that the earnings threshold at which graduates start to pay off their loans will be increased from £21,000 to £25,000, and will go up in line with earnings after next year. That will mean a saving of about £360 in 2018-19 compared with this year for graduates earning at least £25,000.

There will also be more help offered to aspiring homeowners, and to renters. As well as a £10bn expansion of the Help to Buy loan scheme, [Sajid Javid, the communities secretary] will announce that all private landlords will be required to join a redress system that allows tenants to complain and see those in breach sanctioned. Javid will also oblige letting agents to be registered with a professional body and require them to meet a set of minimum standards.

Taking issue with the Sunday Telegraph, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, was one of several people last night on Twitter to point out that a relatively modest reduction in the amount graduates will have to pay for tuition fees doesn’t amount to a “revolution”.

Quite soon we’ll found out what May herself has to say about this. As is customary, she is starting the conference with an interview with Andrew Marr.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Theresa May gives an interview to the Andrew Marr Show.

10am: Damian Green, the first secretary of state, is interviewed on Peston on Sunday and on Pienaar’s Politics.

10am: Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, is interviewed on Sky’s Paterson on Sunday and on Pienaar’s Politics.

10.30am: Conservative members attend private meeting of the national conservative convention at the conference hotel. It is expected that May will use this to issue a qualified apology to members for her role in the disastrous election campaign, which saw the party squander a huge poll lead and lose its overall majority.

2.10pm: Sir Patrick McLoughlin, the party chairman, will open the conference proceedings.

2.30pm: Damian Green speaks.

3pm: Justine Greening, the education secretary, speaks.

3.20pm: Sajid Javid speaks.

3.50pm: Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, speaks.

4.05pm: James Brokenshire, the Northern Ireland secretary, speaks.

4.15pm: Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Conservative leader, speaks.

We’ve been told Greening and Javid will both be making policy announcements in their speeches.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Theresa May and her husband Philip May arriving at the Midland Hotel for the Conservative party conference yesterday.
Theresa May and her husband Philip May arriving at the Midland Hotel for the Conservative party conference yesterday. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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