No leader's speech planned for Tory conference

Last year, the then-prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty both gave speeches at the Conservative Party's annual conference

The Conservative conference will be dedicated almost entirely to the party’s leadership election, the BBC has learnt, with no speech currently planned from Rishi Sunak.

The party’s annual conference is usually dominated by speeches to activists from the Conservative leader and their top team.

But under current plans, every day of this year’s conference in Birmingham will be given over to the final four candidates to succeed Mr Sunak.

After Priti Patel’s elimination, there are five candidates still in the leadership race. They will be whittled down to four by Conservative MPs in a further vote next week.

Those four will be put through their paces repeatedly in front of party activists, according to two senior sources, on the conference stage at the end of this month.

On the Monday, each candidate will be interviewed on stage in turn, in a “fireside chat”.

The next day, each one will answer questions from party members. It's not settled yet whether they will do so one after the other, or all at the same time, in effect turning the session into a debate.

On the Wednesday, when the Conservative leader would usually give their speech, each candidate will be given the chance to speak from the podium and sell their vision to party members.

After the conference, Conservative MPs will again narrow the field, this time to two, before members have the final say. The winner will be announced on 2 November.

The plans for the conference - which are said to be only “pencilled in” in case some of the leadership candidates object - are modelled in part on the 2005 “beauty parade” conference, where several leadership candidates spoke.

The then outsider, future Prime Minister David Cameron, was seen to have performed best in his speech, picking up considerable momentum and defeating the initial favourite, David Davis.

The absence of a speech from Mr Sunak, who remains acting Conservative leader until his successor is elected, is notable amid considerable grassroots frustration with his unsuccessful general election campaign.

One senior party source said he was “damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t”.

It's understood Mr Sunak will still attend the conference and participate in a lower-key way.

Members of Mr Sunak’s shadow cabinet will also not give policy speeches, as would ordinarily be the case.

The only possible exception is Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, who may be given the opportunity to defend the Conservatives’ economic record from the stage.