James Cleverly came across as a tremendous swank. He tapped his barrel chest, pushed a thumbs-up at the hall and announced he was going to win this leadership election and become PM.
‘Pick me,’ he said with a duh-it’s-so-obvious shrug. When the interviewer said ‘if you make the final two of the contest’, Mr Cleverly corrected the fellow. ‘I think WHEN I’m in the final two of the contest,’ he said before touching the edge of his spectacles. Eric Morecambe in a beard.
Did Conservative activists recoil from this presumption? Did they bridle at his bumptiousness? Far from it.Â
By some measure they gave Mr Cleverly the most enthusiastic response of any of the four contenders. After under-exciting performances from the others they were glad to hear someone being boosterish. Let glum-choppery be left to that dirgeful duo Starmer and Reeves.
Conservative leadership candidate James Cleverly speaks to party members on the main stage on October 1
Mr Cleverly, in red socks and a tight jacket, was taking part in the last of the hour-long sessions in which the candidates were quizzed on stage
Mr Cleverly holds his hand against his face while he speaks to party members on the main stage
Mr Cleverly, in red socks and a tight jacket, was taking part in the last of the hour-long sessions in which the candidates were quizzed on stage.
Robert Jenrick had just done his session and, boy, it was a gluey watch. The most interesting moment was when he disclosed that his latest daughter has ‘Thatcher’ as her middle name. The rest of Mr Jenrick’s encounter became rather bogged down with stuff about immigration and Islam. One has been to less depressing Harold Pinter plays.
Today all four contenders will make set-piece speeches before activists return to their constituencies and prepare for five years (or a decade?) of opposition.Â
The drawn-out beauty contest has consumed the conference and made it an unexpected draw. Some of us had expected Tory Birmingham this week to resemble the O.K. Corral after the gunfight. It is not impossible to imagine Oliver Dowden as the brothel pianist slumped at his keyboard, riddled by Colt 45 slugs.
In fact, the four-day conference has been oddly peppy. Members were going about their morning business yesterday when Tom Tugendhat bounced into the exhibition hall with a posse of his eager young thrusters and started modelling his latest baseball caps and T-shirts.Â
The shadow home secretary while speaking to party members on October 1Â
James Cleverly and his wife Susannah walk together on the third day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham
Conservative leadership candidate James Cleverly speaks to party members on the main stage in the Birmingham
He was also persuaded by photographers to sit in a barber’s chair. Anything for a photo opportunity.
Mr Jenrick had a go at a Scalextric track with his wife. Kemi Badenoch was nowhere to be seen. She is less one for media stunts.
In the name of duty, I attended a fringe event about the lack of freedom in politics.
The speakers were perfectly intelligent and decent in what they were saying but, again, it was not scintillating.Â
A wonk from the Adam Smith Institute, no doubt super-educated, talked of ‘information asymmetry’ and ’empiricism’ and we all sucked our pencils and tried to look gripped. But it didn’t quite fly.
No one pointed out that the real reason our politicians rob us of our freedom is that petty rules give them a sense of power. Today’s ruling class, like most of its predecessors, is incorrigibly bossy.
Then I went to a meeting where women talked about the nastiness candidates face from social media and the tiny attention span of today’s public. They reckoned you have eight seconds maximum, more possibly three, in which to sell a policy on Tik-Tok.
In such a world a one-hour stage interview with candidates for the party’s next leader might seem unrealistic. In such a world, furthermore, policy detail (never a forte for Mr Cleverly) is less of a vote-winner than a slightly beery swagger.
From the moment Mr Cleverly walked on that stage he looked confident, writes Quentin LettsÂ
Mr Cleverly pictured with his wife on October 1 at the Conservative Party ConferenceÂ
From the moment Mr Cleverly walked on that stage he looked confident. The shoulders rolled, the buttocks wiggled, the heels clopped. ‘I’m the best candidate. I’ve overtaken the others. I get stuff done.’ Endless sentences began with ‘I’.
He took potshots at his rivals; more importantly, he got stuck into Labour, particularly David Lammy and Sir Keir Starmer. He teased Mr Lammy for being self-absorbed. No one seemed to mind that he himself was supremely cocky. Shameless hucksterism is not entirely unknown in politics.
I suspect he’ll romp home.
