Britain’s opposition Conservatives gather for an annual conference on Sunday, licking their wounds from an historic election defeat and locked in battle over the party’s future direction. The four-day meeting in Birmingham, central England, comes three months after the Tories were ousted from power by Labour, making Keir Starmer prime minister. It is the Conservatives’ first conference in opposition since 2009 — a year before David Cameron set them on their way to 14 years of consecutive but chaotic rule, marked by austerity, Brexit, the Covid pandemic and in-fighting.
The get-together will see four candidates audition in front of parliamentary colleagues and grassroots members to try to convince them that they should replace ex-premier Rishi Sunak as the next Tory leader. Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat will all make pitches from the stage in the main hall at the International Convention Centre in Britain’s second-largest city. “It’s essentially going to be a talent parade,” Robert Ford, politics professor at the University of Manchester, told AFP.
Conservative MPs will vote next week to determine the final two candidates. Party members will then select the winner in a ballot that closes at the end of October. Britain’s new opposition leader — and the person tasked with reuniting the party and making it electable again — will be announced on Saturday November 2.
Whoever is chosen will determine whether the party tacks fur.