PI goes to the London hustings

After what many in the party consider to have been too long a process, the Conservative leadership election is about to come to an end. For nearly two months, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have been travelling up and down the country meeting party members and communicating their ideas in a variety of different ways. From major set-piece interviews with the press to writing articles in newspapers, and from large hustings events to dozens of smaller gatherings of the party faithful, this exhausting contest will end on Monday when Truss or Sunak will be announced as the UK’s next prime minister. Two of Political Intelligence’s consultants, Anna Parnanen and Robert Price , secured tickets to the London hustings to hear from the candidates and get a sense of the party's mood.

This hustings – the last in the series – saw thousands of members from London and the Southeast gather to hear from the wannabe PMs and their supporters at the Webley Arena (with every speaker starting their speech with a jokey “Good evening, Wembley!” – absolutely certain that they would be the only one to have thought of such a clever gag). Following a short warm-up act from broadcaster-turned-politician-turned-broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Gove introduced Truss and Sunak respectively.

For those who have followed the election campaign, most of what came up in this hustings will be familiar. Sunak talked about his family and the need to tackle inflation. Truss talked about lowering taxes and stimulating growth. Both candidates highlighted their support for Ukraine and the need to beat Labour. However, there were a couple of interesting aspects to this event that we have not seen before.

Firstly, there was a significant focus on party unity. This campaign has been tough and many in the party have seen the strong attacks that the candidates have used against each other as divisive and playing into Labour’s hands. From the candidates and their VIP supporters, there was a theme of uniting behind the winner and reminding the activists present that they were all really on the same team and winning the next election (against the backdrop of a large Labour lead in the polls) should be the focus. Sunak in particular praised Truss’s work as Foreign Secretary and said that “I agree with Liz on far more than we disagree on”.

Secondly, the room was overwhelmingly in support of Sunak. He received loud cheering and a number of standing ovations, which well exceeded the support shown for Truss. The fact that the London and the Southeast Tory membership is younger, more metropolitan, more diverse, and a little less enamoured with Boris Johnson than in other parts of the country might explain this, but given the large fraction of the overall membership made up by members from this part of the country, there might be few worries in the Truss camp. However, polling has consistently shown that she enjoys a big lead and, by all accounts, a 90th-minute Sunak winner (as host Nick Ferrari suggested to the Wembley crowd) seems like a long shot.

Whoever wins, after a hard fight they will be able to enter Number 10, put their feet up and bask in the glory of their achievement – for about five minutes. Then they will be hit by the mammoth task of dealing with one of the most difficult periods in our recent history, involving inflation, poverty, high debt, energy shortages, massive health service backlogs, strikes, education catch-up, and a war, all whilst preparing for an approaching general election. Maybe the candidate who comes second will be the real winner…