Rishi Sunak has officially made his last ever conference speech as the leader of the Conservative Party.
The party’s annual gathering usually has those at the top leading the whole event, but the former PM – who is still leader until November – has taken the almost unprecedented step of not speaking from the main stage at all this year.
Allowing the spotlight to fall on the four remaining contenders vying to replace him, Sunak just made a 15-minute “thank you” speech to party members away from the main hall.
Speaking to a room – which was not exactly packed to the brim – Sunak was quick to apologise for leading the party into its worst set of election results ever.
He said: “I am only sorry that your efforts could not deliver the results you deserved.”
But one person in the crowd heckled him, saying: “It wasn’t you!”
He received further support when he confirmed that this would be his last speech to conference as the Tory Party leader, as another mysterious attendee shouted, “We love you, Rishi!”
He did not respond.
The former PM also wasted no time in criticising Labour, whom he claimed were trying to “rewrite history”.
New PM Keir Starmer has blamed his more unpopular decisions – like restricting the winter fuel payments to those on pension credit – on the £22bn black hole Labour claim the Tories left behind in the government finances.
Sunak said conference this year was clearly such a “hot ticket” that he was surprised the prime minister “hasn’t asked someone to buy it for him”.
He added: “Socialists always run out of other people’s money, something Lord Alli is finding out as we speak.”
Lord Alli is a Labour donor who has been in the spotlight this month over the amount of freebies Starmer has declared since 2019.
Sunak concluded his speech by saying: “I do want to finish with a final ask of all of you.
“Whoever wins this contest, give them your backing.”
He continued: “We must end the division, the backbiting, the squabbling. We must not nurse old grudges but build new friendships.
“We must always remember what unites us rather than obsess over where we might differ, because when we turn in on ourselves we lose and the country ends up with a Labour government.”
Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick are competing to replace Sunak as the leader of the Tory Party, and will use this week’s conference to pitch themselves to the Conservative members.