Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Conservative conference 2017: May interrupted by man trying to give her P45 - as it happened

Summary

  • Theresa May said she wanted to offer voters the “British dream” but the most personal speech of her premiership was overshadowed by a a P45, an incessant cough and a stage malfunction.
  • The Conservatives will launch an investigation into security at their party conference after a prankster waving a P45 disrupted Theresa May’s speech before being dragged from the auditorium. Police said he was accredited. The home secretary, Amber Rudd, has since declared herself “disappointed” and Downing Street has said there will be a “thorough investigation”.
  • Main points from the speech.
  • A tweet from a Conservative MP, apparently seeking to dampen speculation about Theresa May’s future, has indicated that the parliamentary party is, in fact, discussing whether or not she can stay on.

That’s all from this live blog, which is now closing. Thanks for following.

Had Theresa May known she was going to have a coughing fit, would she have worn a bracelet comprised of small, painted images of the Mexican reconstructionist, Frida Kahlo on her right wrist? Or is that precisely why she used that hand to cough into - so that we, the public, could see that, in 2005, she went to a blockbuster show at the Tate Modern?

A kind reading suggests that May is aware of Kahlo’s resurgence in the cultural world. Next year, the V&A will host a grand retrospective of the Mexican artist. Kahlo was also cited as a muse to Roland Mouret’s most recent collection, spring-summer 2017, and featured heavily in Etro’s pre-autumn collection. Moreover, May did wear Mouret to the party conference two years ago and, well, she is fond of the past. As to where it came from, a gift shop springs to mind, although there’s an excellent likeness on twee, hipster, online craft site, Etsy.

Either way, it’s perhaps a surprising statement for the Tory leader, not least because Kahlo was a communist, married to artist Diego Riviera, a prominent figure in the Mexican Communist party, and a close friend of Leon Trotsky. She also spent her career concerned with the plight of the impoverished, our connectedness to self, nature and the universe, the relationship between pain and identity, and imagined, one day, we could live in a classless society.

Referring to the apparent ease with which a prankster got to within yards of the government’s most senior figures during May’s speech, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, has said she was “very disappointed”. She told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme:

I am going to continue to follow what’s going on, it’s in the hands of the police and we will make sure we look carefully into how it happened to make sure it doesn’t again.

Simon Brodkin, who was arrested and released soon afterwards, was accredited to attend the conference, Greater Manchester police said. Chief superintendent John O’Hare said officers would be “reviewing the accreditation process with the Conservative party” as a result.

A Downing Street source has told the Press Association: “We expect that there will be a thorough investigation into what happened.” The source declined to discuss the prime minister’s security arrangements.

The Conservative MP, George Freeman, the head of the prime minister’s policy board, told the agency:

There should be some very serious questions, that could have been a terrorist. My understanding is he’s a comedian, he’s often used by the BBC, and questions will be asked about how he was allowed to get that close.

Shaun Hinds, the chief executive of Manchester Central, said that “conference security protocols were immediately enacted resulting in the individual being quickly ejected from the venue and handed over” to police.

The former cabinet minister, Ken Clarke, urged Boris Johnson to “go away and try and find out something about foreign policy and try to be foreign secretary”, accusing him of turning the party’s conference into “mayhem”.

Clarke said of Johnson:

He made a very disloyal speech just before she was due to make the Florence speech. He made a very disloyal speech just before this conference, and he’s turned the conference into mayhem.

And anybody looking in from outside, I’m not surprised they’re somewhat puzzled at the state of the government.

Johnson has sought to paint a picture of unity in public.

This live blog is reopening and we’ve been getting some more reaction to the prime minister’s conference speech.

  • In an apparent attempt to quieten down questions among his parliamentary colleagues about Theresa May’s future as the party’s leader, Tory MP Mark Pritchard amplified questions among his parliamentary colleagues about Theresa May’s future as the party’s leader. Pritchard, who was appointed as one of May’s trade envoys last month, also praised her for battling through the unexpected interruptions.
  • The announcement that energy prices were to be capped drew praise from the former Conservative minister, John Penrose, who said May was “absolutely right to protect households from rip-off energy bills with an energy price cap”. Penrose, who helped organise a cross-party campaign to cap energy bills for 17 million families that had the backing of 76 Tories, said May must back a relative price cap - a maximum mark-up between each energy firm’s best deal and its default tariff.
  • Labour’s shadow business and energy secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, said May’s energy price plans dd not go far enough. “It is unclear if responsibility for action has again been passed to Ofgem, with no commitment on when or how action will be taken. Yet again, the country is left confused about whether the prime minister will honour her election promise.”
  • The energy cap announcement received a cooler response from the Confederation of British Industry, whose director general, Carolyn Fairbairn, called it an “example of state intervention that misses the mark”. But she welcomed the prime minister’s words on how to meet the “profound challenges and opportunities of Brexit and creating a fairer and more prosperous economy”, saying she had “recognised the fundamental importance of good government working in partnership with responsible business to improve lives”.
  • The industry regulator, Ofgem, said it shared the government’s “concern that the market is not working for all consumers”.
  • The Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said: “Theresa May’s speech, beset with problems and protests, proved the ‘British dream’ is a Tory nightmare for families and communities hit by years of endless austerity, cuts and low economic growth.”
  • The chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said: “Despite its billing, despite all the slogans on the stage, this was not really a speech about aspiration and building a country that works for everyone. “To do that the Prime Minister should have directly addressed UK poverty, one of the ‘burning injustices’ which she spoke about last year.”

Summary

  • Theresa May said she wanted to offer voters the “British dream” but the most personal speech of her premiership was overshadowed by a a P45, an incessant cough and a stage malfunction.
  • The Conservatives will launch an investigation into security at their party conference after a prankster waving a P45 disrupted Theresa May’s speech before being dragged from the auditorium.
  • Main points from the speech.

That’s all from me.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Health groups have praised Theresa May’s decision to overhaul the system of organ donation in England in order to increase the number of livers, kidneys and other body parts available for transplant patients.

In future people in England will have to opt out of organ donation – a system called presumed consent – rather than opt in as they do under the current system. Wales brought in a presumed consent system in December 2015 and that has led to more organs than before being retrieved and thus more lives being extended or saved, doctors say.

Under the system May wants it is automatically presumed that someone will donate their organs upon their death unless they opt out. Currently people in England opt in by signing on the organ donor register.

Gordon Brown tried to make the same switch in 2008 when he was in No 10 but in the end did not press ahead with the plan after some doctors warned such a change could create difficulties for those treating patients near the end of their lives.

The prime minister’s announcement follows a sustained campaign in favour of presumed consent by the Daily Mirror – not a newspaper that Tory premiers usually take seriously.

“The decision to introduce an opt-out system for organ donation in England is excellent news,” said Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association.

“The BMA has lobbied and campaigned tirelessly on this for many years and [it] has the potential to save many lives. It is important that the new process is well publicised to ensure the public are fully aware of and understand this important change. The health service must also have the resources, as well as facilities, to ensure transplant procedures can be performed when they are needed.”

Updated

Theresa May is not the first to reach for a cough lozenge during an important speech; Hillary Clinton did the same during her presidential campaign.

Despite Philip Hammond’s proffered remedy, cough drops may not be the way to go when tackling a coughing attack. Rather, it seems, it is all in the breathing.

Dr Konstantin Buteyko, a breathing disorders expert, devised a “stop cough” method in the 1950s that is still advocated today.

According to his tried and tested technique, at the first sign of a tickle you should put your hand over your mouth and swallow, keeping your hand over your mouth throughout.

Next, take a small breath in and out through your mouth, and pinch your nose if you can. Hold your breath for a count of five or 10. Leave your hand over your mouth and release your nose if pinching it.

Then, take small, careful breaths through the nose, all the time resisting the urge to cough. Take slow steady breaths in and out of your nose until the tickle has subsided.

Reaching for the water may lead only to temporary relief, as May’s speech proved.

This method may not make for flattering photographs up there on the stage in Manchester. But as the P45 picture is probably the money shot, that is arguably an irrelevance.

Updated

ITV’s Robert Peston has written a Facebook post about the speech. Here is an excerpt.

Frustratingly for her it is not her “British Dream” which will lodge in the public consciousness – but the chaotic theatre, which also involved letters tumbling from the campaign slogan stuck on the wall behind her (“Building a country that works for everyone”, though apparently with insipid adhesive).

I am told that after she left the stage, the prime minister hugged her husband and wept. No one would blame her.

PS Downing Street insists “her crying is a total lie, 100% untrue”. I am obviously happy to report that.

Updated

The Conservative have confirmed they will review the accreditation arrangements for conference. A spokesperson said:

In light of the arrest during the prime minister’s speech we are working with the police to review the accreditation process and security arrangements for party conference.

May's energy price cap pledge – Details

And this is what CCHQ is saying in its briefing note about the draft legislation for an energy price cap.

The energy market hasn’t been working for ordinary consumers. For millions of families, energy bills are far too high – in particular, those on “standard variable tariffs” (SVTs)

What we are doing is publishing a draft bill next week that would give Ofgem powers to impose a cap on SVTs over the whole market. Ofgem are expected to come out with their plans for how they will safeguard customers on the poorest value tariffs. If their plans do not go far enough, this power will enable them to go further.

Our plan still preserves the workings of the competitive market and the principle of arms-length regulation. It will be up to Ofgem to set the level of the cap. There should be savings for customers on bad deals, but enough headroom for there still to be a reason for people to shop around. And this measure is intended to be temporary, while innovations such as smart meters arrive and enable the market to work properly for everyone.

The fact that there will be legislation is significant. MPs can amend bills and, with more than 70 Tory MPs calling for a relatively tough energy price cap, May’s plans could end up being beefed up.

Updated

May's £2bn for affordable housing - Details

This is what the CCHQ is saying in a briefing note about the £2bn for affordable housing announced by Theresa May.

We will provide £2bn more funding for the affordable housing programme.

This will increase the government’s 2016-21 affordable homes programme to £9.1bn. This extra £2bn will lever in a total investment of £5bn (public and private) in new housing.

In those areas of the country where rents are high, we will allow bids for social rent, which are further below market rents.

With a typical subsidy of £80,000, £2bn investment can supply around 25,000 homes available for social rent. This compares with an additional 6,800 social rent homes delivered in 2015-16.

To help encourage more investment in social housing, we will create a stable financial environment by setting a long-term rent deal for councils and housing associations. This will give them the security and certainty to invest and build more.

We will encourage councils as well as housing associations to bid for this funding so that we can deliver a new generation of council homes in this country.

Updated

Here is a Guardian video of Theresa May’s coughing fit.

Theresa May has tweeted a picture of all her cough sweets.

Institute of Directors says party conference season 'a big let-down' for business

The Institute of Directors says the entire party conference season has been “one big letdown” for business. This is from Stephen Martin, the IoD’s director general.

I think it’s fair to say that this year’s party conference season has been one big letdown for businesses across the UK. On the one hand you have a Labour party which has decided that business is the bad guy, on the other you have a Conservative party which talks about the importance of markets, but then tinkers around with help to buy and energy price caps. What are business leaders meant to make of it all?

At this pivotal moment in this country’s history, far too little time has been spent explaining the plan for how we leave the European Union, or debating how we tackle the long-term challenges that face our economy.

Updated

Here is Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, on Theresa May’s speech.

Theresa May’s speech – beset with problems and protests – proved the ‘British dream’ is a Tory nightmare for families and communities hit by years of endless austerity, cuts and low economic growth. That nightmare is now compounded by the dangerous shambles of Brexit which is a threat to jobs, businesses and livelihoods across the UK.

Here is a Guardian panel with reaction to the speech from Hugh Muir, Gaby Hinsliff, Matthew d’Ancona, Kate Maltby and Abi Wilkinson.

Here is Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, on Theresa May’s speech.

Lord Porter, the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association, has given a qualified welcome to Theresa May’s announcement about council homes. But he is implying it does not go far enough. He said:

It is good that the government has accepted our argument that councils must be part of the solution to our chronic housing shortage and able to resume their historic role as a major builder of affordable homes. We hope that today’s speech by the prime minister signals an important shift in the government’s housing vision and are pleased that there will be additional funding for affordable homes.

Councils are working with communities to approve nine in 10 planning applications but it is clear that only an increase of all types of housing – including those for affordable or social rent – will solve the housing crisis. A genuine renaissance in council housebuilding would increase housing supply, boost home ownership and reduce homelessness.

The last time the country was building more than 250,000 houses was in 1978 – when councils built 44% of new homes. Councils want to get on with the job of building the new homes that people in their areas desperately need.

Every housing market is different and the only way councils will be able to significantly deliver the new homes we need is if they are given genuine powers to invest in housing that meets the needs of communities in every town and city across the country.

This means the ability to borrow to invest in new council housing, to keep 100% of right-to-buy receipts to replace sold homes, certainty over future rents, powers to make sure developers build approved homes in a timely fashion, and adequately funded planning departments so that they can cover the cost of processing applications.

Updated

Greater Manchester police have put out this statement from Ch Supt John O’Hare:

Earlier today a man was detained by conference security during the prime minister’s speech.

Officers attended and the man was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace and was released a short time later.

The man had legitimate accreditation which granted him access to the conference site.

In light of this we will be reviewing the accreditation process with the Conservative party.

Even with accreditation, everyone at the conference goes through airport-style searches before being allowed entry to the site.

Updated

This is from ITV’s Paul Brand.

Updated

Theresa May’s colleagues are putting a positive gloss on the way she managed to keep going despite her cough.

This is what Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, told the BBC’s World at One.

Well I think she came across as very human, in fairness perhaps not in the way that she had planned.

But people up and down the country watching TV have coughs and colds and they struggle on and that’s what she did.

I think people know that she has had not just an annoying cough but a very, very tough few months and what comes across about Theresa May in public now is something that I’ve always seen in private which is a tremendous sense of duty.

And this is from Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives’ leader.

Updated

May's speech - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about the speech on Twitter.

Basically, there is no avoiding the fact it was a disaster.

From Sky’s Tamara Cohen

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From Steve Richards

From the BBC’s Andrew Neil

From the Mirror’s Jason Beattie

From the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman

From Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan

From the Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff

From the BBC’s Nick Robinson

From Channel 4 News’s Cathy Newman

From the BBC’s Jeremy Vine

From Good Morning Britain’s Anne Alexander

From the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner

From the Independent’s Ashley Cowburn

From the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland

From the Telegraph’s Stephen Swinford

From HuffPost’s Paul Waugh

Updated

This is from MLex’s Matthew Holehouse.

May’s team has been briefing on the speech. As the FT’s Jim Pickard says, the claim that Theresa May is going to oversee a massive, Macmillanesque council house building programme is well wide of the mark.

Updated

Theresa May's speech - Snap verdict

Most party conference speeches, even those that are deemed a success on the day, are quickly forgotten. This one will be remembered for the rest of May’s career. As her voice continually gave way, it was excruciating to watch and at one point it looked as if she would have to give up. The start of May’s speech was strong, and she responded to the (rather puerile) protest from Simon Brodkin with a good, confident ad lib, but after that her voice sabotaged the rest of the speech. It is often overlooked how physically demanding politics is at the very top: endless early mornings, late nights, demanding schedules, and a job where you can’t pull a sickie. May boasts that she is someone who doesn’t give up, and she proved it today as she limped to the end of her speech. But it is hard - no, impossible - not to see this, at least to an extent, as a metaphor for premiership that is struggling and running out of things to say.

That is particularly harsh for May because, for once, she did have something to tell us. The first 15 minutes or so, as she talked about the election, and her grandmother who was in service, was good. She managed just about the right mix of determination and contrition and, although the “British dream” is a hackneyed theme, she personalised it well.

In policy terms, there were two significant announcements: on housebuilding and on an energy price cap. Both could have come straight out of an Ed Miliband speech, and in this respect the speech confirms that it is Labour that is setting the agenda. The housing announcement does not seem to live up to the billing it received overnight in the Sun, and we have had little detail on the energy price cap plan so far, and so the speech does not really fill the gap in the Conservative party’s domestic policy agenda (see 10.47am). But it is a move in the right direction.

Will this be enough to reset May’s fortunes? Unless having most of the nation feeling sorry for you can boost your ratings, almost certainly not. But she has got through conference without Boris Johnson resigning, or the party falling apart, and so it could have been worse.

Updated

Here is a shot showing the missing “F”. (See 12.50pm.)

An ‘F’ falls off the backdrop as British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech

Updated

May is now winding up. She is in politics to make a difference, she says. Now is the time to fulfil our duty to the British people.

And that’s it.

Updated

Oh dear. Now the ‘f’ on the slogan behind May (BUILDING A COUNTRY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE) has fallen off.

Updated

May says we are a nation of dreamers, “with the capacity to deliver those dreams too”.

Cities like Manchester fired the industrial revolution, she says.

Britain discovered DNA, and the lithium-ion battery, which powers all laptops and phones.

And in Manchester graphene was developed, leading to two scientists winning the Nobel prize.

She says George Osborne was right to back the ‘northern powerhouse’. She will back it too.

Updated

May praises the way ordinary people rushed to help after the Manchester Arena attack.

Above all, we saw a community coming together, she says.

This image was shared around the globe, she says.

May is now talking about the terror attack in Manchester.

(Her voice, which has been holding up for the last few minutes, now seems to be getting very faint.)

May says we must look at how we conduct politics in this country.

There is a big problem when an MP from one party refuses to be friends with someone from another.

(She is referring to Labour’s Laura Pidcock.)

She says there is a problem when a political journalist needs bodyguards to do her job.

And there is a problem when one of the major parties is “riven with the stain of antisemitism”.

Updated

A picture of the P45 handed to May has found its way on to social media

May turns to Scotland. She says she takes comfort from the fact that “the general election saw the threat of nationalism set back”.

May says government will publish draft legislation for energy price cap next week

May summarises the tuition fee proposals announced earlier this week.

And she turns to energy prices, saying the government will publish a draft bill next week for an energy cap, implementing the manifesto promise.

  • May says the government will publish draft legislation for an energy price cap next week.

May announces an extra £2bn to be spend on affordable housing

May turns to housing.

She says the government will fix the broken housing market. The election result showed people think not enough is being done to address this. “We’ve listened and we’ve learnt,” she says.

  • May announces an extra £2bn to be spend on affordable housing - taking the government’s total affordable housing budget to almost £9bn.

She says the government will encourage councils to bid for this money.

So, if you have been waiting for a council home, “help is on the way”.

Updated

May says it is a matter of great sadness to her that she and her husband could not have children.

But I believe in the dream that life should be better for the next generation as much as any mother. Any father. Any grandfather.

May defends aid spending.

But she says it is “absurd” that international rules mean the aid budget should not be used to help the hurricane victims in the British Overseas Territories.

She says if Britain has to change the rules on international aid to stop this being a problem “then that’s what we will do”.

  • May calls for change to the rules on international aid spending so that aid money can be used to help relatively wealthy countries hit by natural disasters.

Updated

Prankster interrupts May's speech

Prankster Simon Brodkin disrupted Theresa May’s speech at the Conservative conference, waving a P45 at the prime minister on the podium before being tackled by security guards.

Brodkin, who is also known as Lee Nelson and famously showered then-Fifa president Sepp Blatter with fake banknotes, was dragged out of the hall pursued by journalists. “Boris told me to do it,” he said, referring to the foreign secretary.

A scrum of photographers descended around him, as well as members and security guards who began chanting “out, out, out” as May was forced to pause her speech, tripping over her words

In the scrum, several cameramen tripped over as he was taken down the steps of the conference hall and into the security area

May restarted her speech with a quip that she would like to give a P45 to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, receiving a standing ovation from members in the hall.

The incident is likely to raise significant questions about the security at the conference, with Brodkin allowed to wave the P45 at May for several seconds before he was pulled away.

Updated

May says some young people worry that Brexit means the UK is turning its back on the world.

But the government is choosing a global Britain instead, she says.

Britain will cooperate with other nations tackling problems like mass migration, modern slavery and climate change.

We will provide a moral lead in the world, and set an example for others.

May says the UK will continue to spend 2% of GDP on defence.

And it will lead the world cracking down on modern slavery.

We must bring this outrage to an end.

May says the government will extend the same energy to skills training.

For the first time, Britain will get “a first-class technical education system”.

May says the government will continue to reform education and skills training.

School reforms are working, she says.

But there is more to do. It is not good enough that people in the north have less chance of attending a good school than someone in the south.

The government will extend free schools, “not because our ideology says so, but because free schools work, and it is the right thing to do”.

Updated

May says it is time to focus on the next big economic challenge. As the world’s leading advocates for free markets, the UK will pursue new free market deals with countries around the world.

Updated

May starts again, but the cough comes back. She says this shows how good the chancellor’s cough sweet was.

Updated

Members are applauding – stretching it out so that May has time for her voice to recover.

Updated

May says the NHS is the “very essence of our solidarity in our United Kingdom”.

She says the NHS that has been there for her. It was the NHS that diagnosed her type 1 diabetes, she says.

She thanks NHS staff for their dedication.

May says the Tories have invested in the NHS and upheld its principles “through more years in government than any other”.

May says wealth creators generate the taxes that pay for our public services.

When politicians offer the earth, disillusionment with politics grows.

The government will adopt a balanced approach, she says.

(This is excruciating to watch.)

Philip Hammond gives her a throat sweet.

That’s the chancellor giving away something for free, she says.

May is now getting a standing ovation.

May says the government is on course to get the economy back on track.

The coughing is getting worse. May has now stopped.

(People are feeling sorry for her.)

May, who has had a cold this week, is now starting to cough a lot. And her voice is getting weaker.

(All a bit reminiscent of Iain Duncan Smith.)

May says she knows EU citizens are nervous.

But she has a message for them.

You are welcome here.

May is now talking about Brexit.

She says she finds some negotiations frustrating. But if we approach them in the right spirit, “I am confident that we will find a deal that works for Britain and Europe too.”

Updated

May is now back on her text.

She says Corbyn thinks we should take Venezuela as a role model.

No, Jeremy Corbyn.

(That was intended to be an ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn’ joke, but it did not come across like that.)

May’s comeback was rather good.

But she was momentarily thrown. When the person approached her, she talked about “run on the ground” instead of “run on the pound”.

May says she was about to talk about someone she would like to give a P45 to, and that’s Jeremy Corbyn.

Updated

Someone hands May a P45. May stumbles over a word, and then stops her speech. There is silence for a bit, then applause.

It looks like the protester has been removed.

May says the Tories must defend free and open markets “with all our might”.

The Tories have a vision of an open, global Britain, “while our opponents flrit with a foreign policy of neutrality”.

May says the free and open market system helped to bring the downfall of communism. It spread freedom.

So don’t try and tell me that free markets are no longer fit for purpose ...

The free market ... remains the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created.

May says the Tories must win the battle of ideas again.

The country is under attack from militant forces who preach hate, she says.

And the market economy is being called into question “by those who would imperil our future by adopting the failed experiments of the past”.

Updated

May announces review of the Mental Health Act

May says mental health is a priority for her.

  • May announces review of the Mental Health Act. It will be conducted by Prof Sir Simon Wessely, she says.

May announces opt-out organ donation system for England

May says as prime minister she ordered the racial disparity unit.

BME people have a higher risk of illness that requires a transplant, she says.

  • May says an opt-out organ donation system will be introduced in England, instead of the current opt-in one.

(Wales has already adopted an opt-out system, and Jeremy Corbyn committed Labour to doing the same for England at last week’s Labour conference.)

May says she wants to make a difference for people whose voices are not heard.

Like the families of the 96 people killed at Hillsborough. Or the victims and survivors of sexual abuse.

Or Alexander Paul, a young black man who spoke at conference three years ago about continually being stopped by police.

She says she took action. The number of black people being stopped and searched has fallen by two thirds.

She says Paul was diagnosed with brain cancer and died in June. Let us remember his courage in speaking out, she says.

Updated

May says people ask why she puts herself through this. She does this to “root out injustice and give everyone in our country a voice”, she says.

Updated

May says the party cannot stand still. Change is constant, as Disraeli said.

Updated

May says the party had to deal with the crash. But it did not just do that. She lists various achievements:

Income tax cuts.

4 million people not paying tax.

Employment at record high.

Income inequality at its lowest level for 30 years.

More women in work than ever.

Over 11,000 more doctors in the NHS.

Updated

May says the party must renew that dream. That is what drives her, she says. Whenever we are tested as a nation, the Tories step up to the plate.

Updated

May says her grandmother was a ladies’ maid, a servant.

She worked hard, and wanted her family to get on. And her grandchildren include three professors and a prime minister.

Updated

This dream is her story too, she says.

She says people think she is not emotional.

She does not mind being called the ice maiden - “although perhaps George Osborne did take the analogy a little too far”.

Updated

May says the party has to renew the dream that says each generation can do better than the last.

It is the dream that means the son of a bus driver from Pakistan can serve in a cabinet.

May says she is sorry for election result

May says she called the election. The party won its highest share of the vote for years.

But they did not win a majority.

The campaign was too scripted, she says.

She says she takes responsibility.

I am sorry.

Updated

May says British dream 'increasingly out of reach'

But the election showed that this dream feels distant, she says.

It feels “inceasingly out of reach”.

  • May says British dream “increasingly out of reach”.

Updated

Theresa May arrives on the stage.

She starts by saying a little over 40 years ago, in a village in Oxfordshire, she joined the party.

She joined because it had the ideas to build a better Britain.

At its heart was a simple promise: that each generation could build a better future, could live the British dream.

Updated

Badenoch has finished. A video is now being shown before May starts.

Badenoch says she would not have been selected either without help from Women2Win, a group in the party strongly backed by Theresa May.

Badenoch says in 2010, when she stood as a candidate, she was told the Tories would never pick her for a winnable seat.

Then, when she went for Saffron Walden, she was told she would not get it, she says.

But it is the Conservatives who are the party of opportunity, she says, adding that she has never experienced discrimination in the Conservative party. She says she could not have got to where she is now without the support of white, middle-aged males.

Updated

Kemi Badenoch, the new MP for Saffron Walden, is introducing Theresa May.

Badenoch was elected to parliament for the first time in June. Her maiden speech got rave reviews in some quarters.

She says only in Britain could a girl move to the UK aged 16, instantly be accepted as British, and then be elected as an MP.

Updated

Theresa May's speech

Theresa May is due to start her speech any minute now.

There have been claims at the Conservative conference that the average age of members is now 72.

But according to Prof Tim Bale, who is involved in a project studying party membership, the average age is actually 57.

Updated

Gavin Williamson, the hedgehog-loving chief whip (at least, according to this Radio 4 profile), gave the speech opening this morning’s conference session.

CCHQ have not released the text of his speech, which is a shame because it included a memorable joke. Being a whip was about using carrot and stick approaches, he said. He said he was not a big fan of using sticks. But “it is amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot”.

Updated

Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has admitted that the Tory conference started off “flat”.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg thinks Rudd is being diplomatic.

This report, from my colleague Adam Vaughan in June, explains some of the background to Theresa May’s energy price cap zig-zag.

May included a plan for an energy price cap in the manifesto. But, after the election, the full version of the planned seemed to get dropped. It was not included in the Queen’s speech, which instead had a much more modest proposal on energy prices.

The decision not to include a full energy price cap in the Queen’s speech was seen as a sign of Philip Hammond’s increased authority as chancellor after the election. The Treasury was very wary of the idea.

It was included in the manifesto partly because it was enthusiastically backed by Nick Timothy, May’s then co-chief of staff. Timothy, who frequently clashed with Hammond, resigned the day after the general election. But perhaps May has started listening to him again. Yesterday, in a Sun column about what May should say in her speech, he said that the Tories should “cap energy bills and reform the market to keep costs down in the long term”.

Updated

Centrica shares are now down 5%, and SSE shares down 2.5%, in response to the news about the energy price cap proposal.

May to announce energy price cap legislation

Theresa May will announce new energy price cap legislation in her speech, Bloomberg reports. Greg Clark, the energy secretary, has confirmed that, Bloomberg says.

Centrica shares are down 3% as a result, the Sun’s Steve Hawkes says.

10 things we've learnt from the Conservative party conference

Theresa May’s speech is yet to come. But we have had three days of Tory conferencing already, as well as some indication as to what May will say, and so it is reasonable to draw some conclusions. Here are 10 things we’ve learnt.

1 - For a party of government, the Conservatives are perilously short of ideas. May did have an agenda at the election but the loss of her majority meant that much of that has been ditched (Labour released a briefing document this week saying more than 40% of Tory manifesto promises – 181 out of 447 – have been dropped or shelved) and there is very little evidence so far of an alternative domestic agenda. May’s housing announcement (see 8.40am) may or may not turn out to be transformative, but otherwise what has been striking has been the paucity of policy thinking on bread-and-butter issues like schools and health, on crisis areas like social care, or on the problems of the future, like automation. May’s difficulties are compounded by the fact that the government is still running a deficit and can only be confident of getting radical legislation through the Commons with opposition support.

2 - The Conservatives are desperate to win back young voters - but may be missing the big problem. Age, not class, has become the key divide in British politics and the few significant announcements we have had, on tuition fees, help to buy and council houses, have been aimed at the under-40s. Pensioners, by contrast, have not had a mention. But on their own they might not be enough. These are retail offers, but there is some evidence that the problem is cultural, and that young voters are turning away from the Tories because ...

3 - The Conservative party has become the Brexit party. At the time of the referendum it was a coalition, with members predominantly but not overwhelmingly pro-Brexit and the leadership predominantly but not overwhelmingly against. Now it looks like an enthusiastic pro-Brexit party. In the hall only Brexit really seems to get them going and the most popular fringe meetings have been those addressed by hardcore Brexiteers. MPs say that pro-remain members have stayed away, and that some are leaving the party altogether.

4 - The prospect of Jacob Rees-Mogg becoming next party leader is not quite as fanciful as it seemed in the summer. Rees-Mogg has been the undoubted star of the fringe, and the queues to get into meetings he is addressing have been longer than anyone can remember at a Tory conference. The parallels are not exact, and the Conservative leadership rules are different, but Moggmania is reminiscent of the buzz generated by Jeremy Corbyn in the early summer of 2015.

5 - But the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming leader has diminished. His freelance Brexit policy-making has boosted his standing with party members, but Conservative party rules mean leadership candidates have to get through an MPs’ filter before members vote on the final two, and Johnson’s antics have gone down very, very badly with his colleagues. Because he has been perceived as disloyal, even some Brexiteers have been criticising him. In a good blog Channel 4 News’s Gary Gibbon suggests Johnson’s core support in the Commons is now down to about 30 MPs.

6 - As a campaigning organisation the Conservative party has significant problems. The party has had to deny claims membership is down to 100,000, which would put in on a par with the Lib Dems’. (Damian Green said membership was “around 120,,000”, although some members have their doubts.) In the past having few members did not stop the party winning elections, but in June the Tories were overwhelmed by Labour on social media and on the ground and now, as people have been discussing at fringe meetings, the fabled election-winning machine looks knackered. To make matters worse, no one seems to be investing much time working out what to do about it - perhaps because the party leader is consumed by Brexit and does not expect to be around to worry about the next election.

7 - The Conservatives have not yet found convincing arguments to undermine Labour. Until the election they concentrated on depicting Jeremy Corbyn as a terrorist sympathiser. That didn’t work, and at this conference they have switched to the economy, giving us endless references to the 1970s and Venezuela. It takes time to work out whether or not political messages are effective, but there is no evidence yet to suggest that this attack line is hitting home.

8 - Tory relations with business are strained. A party conference speech from a Conservative chancellor almost always gets a warm reception from business groups, but this year they were much more critical than usual. Big business did not want Brexit, and this to a large extent explains the problem. Philip Hammond’s call for businesses not to “collaborate” with Labour also seems to have backfired.

9 - The Conservatives have abandoned the austerity narrative. Three years ago Ed Miliband was ridiculed by the Tories after failing to mention the deficit in his party conference speech. The deficit it still with us, but the Tories can see that people are fed up of anti-austerity and it has hardly had a mention all conference. Instead May is now talking about taking a “balanced approach” to the economy - whatever that means.

10 - There is no obvious successor to May. There were expectations that the party conference would turn into a leadership beauty parade, but cabinet ministers have not been using their speeches to set themselves up as alternatives to May (except Johnson, a bit) and none of the mainstream Tories from the younger generation touted as possible future leaders have made much of a mark either.

Updated

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has said he cannot defend what Boris Johnson said about Sirte, the BBC’s Norman Smith reports.

On the Today programme this morning Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, said she hoped there would be “some serious numbers” in Theresa May’s announcement on council homes. She said:

We do need to see some serious numbers being talked about today, but if we do, this could be an absolute watershed because this is what we desperately need ...

We’ve got about 1.2 million people on the waiting list currently for social housing. Honestly, from what we see at Shelter every day it’s not possible to exaggerate the level of misery that that represents, and we have people pushed into the private rented sector, which is completely unaffordable due to a combination of social security cuts on the one hand, low wages, and also then the huge cost anyway within the property market.

Andrew Whitaker, planning director of the Home Builders Federation, told the programme that land needed to be made available alongside additional council powers. He said:

Of course what we must see is additional land coming forward. We can’t just substitute tenure, so we can’t just use the land that the private sector would have used to develop housing.

Don’t forget, the private sector already cross-subsidises affordable housing, but we must have more land and councils must be given the tools in order to deliver their own housing.

Updated

The Sun’s Steve Hawkes says Centrica shares are down this morning.

As the Guardian reported last week, more than 70 Conservative MPs have signed a cross-party letter urging Theresa May to impose a price cap on energy bills. That is a number she cannot afford to ignore, and so it seems reasonable to assume she will have something to say on this subject this morning.

Updated

Here are the extracts from Theresa May’s speech released by Number 10 in advance. She will say:

So let us do our duty by Britain. Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs.

For beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues – the daily lives of ordinary working people go on.

And they must be our focus today.

Not worrying about our job security, but theirs. Not addressing our concerns, but the issues, the problems, the challenges, that concern them. Not focusing on our future, but on the future of their children and their grandchildren – doing everything we can to ensure their tomorrow will be better than our today.

That is what I am in politics for. To make a difference. To change things for the better. To hand on to the next generation a country that is stronger, fairer and more prosperous.

None of this will be easy. There will be obstacles and barriers along the way.

But it has never been my style to hide from a challenge, to shrink from a task, to retreat in the face of difficulty, to give up and turn away.

And it is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless.

That is the story of our party. That is the story of our country. And that is the resolve and determination we need as we turn to face the future today. So let us go forward together. Let us fulfil our duty to Britain.

Damian McBride, who was Gordon Brown’s communications chief and who now works for the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has point out that the speechwriter has pilfered a phrase from the West Wing.

McBride has directed this at the Times because he is clearly still angry about a Times story 10 years ago accusing Brown of lifting phrases from Bill Clinton and Al Gore in his Labour conference speech in 2007.

Updated

Here is video of Boris Johnson making his “dead bodies” remark.

And here he is leaving his hotel this morning for a run with Tony Gallagher, editor of the Sun.

Boris Johnson (right) leaving the conference hotel for a run this morning with Tony Gallagher, editor of the Sun.
Boris Johnson (right) leaving the conference hotel for a run this morning with Tony Gallagher, editor of the Sun.
 Photograph: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

Theresa May will wrap up the Conservative conference with her keynote speech and, after three days of relatively lacklustre policy announcements, she has a potentially big promise - a major council house building programme.

HuffPost UK and the Sun had the story last night and Damian Green, the first secretary of state, has confirmed it in interviews this morning. He told the Today programme a few minutes ago that May would unveil measures in her speech to “make it easier for councils to build new houses for rent”. But we have not had any detail yet of what is being proposed, so at this point it is hard to assess how transformative this will be.

But, as is customary when May is about to give a speech, she has found herself overshadowed by Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary. This, from Sky’s Beth Rigby, sums it up well.

After his speech yesterday there was a brief two hours when people stopped calling for Johnson’s resignation. But, after he said a war-torn Libyan city only has to “clear the dead bodies away” to become a world-class tourist and business destination, the calls for him to go resumed.

Two Conservative MPs took to Twitter last night to say he should go.

And the Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston posted this.

This morning, on the Today programme, Wollaston went a bit further and said Johnson should “consider his position”.

In response, Green has said that Johnson’s language was not acceptable. He told the BBC:

Let me be clear: it was not an acceptable use of ... it was not a sensitive use of language ... As I say, we all need to be sensitive in our use of language, particularly in situations like that.

Green did not call for Johnson to apologise, but on the Today programme Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, was speculating that we would get an apology before May starts her speech.

But last night Johnson did not seem inclined to back down. He posted these messages on Twitter.

And, according Rigby and the BBC’s Norman Smith, Johnson does not seem very repentant this morning.

There is only one item on the agenda today. May is due to speak at about 11.20am. But before she speaks the conference will also hear from Gavin Williamson, the chief whip.

Before May speaks I will also write up a post on 10 things we’ve learnt from the Conservative conference.

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.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Stop 'garbage juice' from turning your trash can into a maggot farm with this $1 fix
Learn how to eliminate maggots from trash cans and prevent flies from returning.
Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
“If it was in that room that day, that would be between 20 and 30 million dollars easy for sure”: Guitar expert reveals the guitars that could surpass the new auction record held by David Gilmour’s Black Strat
Matthieu Lucas from Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris gives Guitar World the lowdown on which guitars could likely break the Gilmour record one day
Guitar World
Guitar World
'Even Disney Sometimes Forgets': The Hannah Montana Special Came Together Thanks To A+ Dolly Parton Advice
How she got "The Best of Both Worlds."
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Kids Pointed Out A 'Plot Hole' In The Parent Trap, And Now The Internet Is Arguing About Car Safety
It's not a plot hole, but it is a good point.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Story Behind Celia Walden's Viral 2022 Photo Explained—and Why It Struck a Nerve on Piers Morgan's Show
Piers Morgan storms off Uncensored after HSTikkyTokky shows a 2022 Instagram of Celia Walden, reigniting scrutiny of the manosphere and Morgan's persona.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Obama’s portrait was replaced by Trump’s assassination painting, but its new location is what’s setting the internet on fire
The Grand Foyer now has a new centerpiece.
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play