It was a curious farewell for Rishi Sunak this afternoon. The Tory leader has just finished his final speech to the party faithful before handing over the reins in five weeks time. Keen not to overshadow his four would-be successors, Sunak opted not to give the traditional Wednesday farewell speech to a seated audience of hundreds. Instead, he preferred to deliver fifteen minutes of remarks in a venue which resembled a school disco, with thumping tunes, glowing copies of the Tory logo and drinks vouchers for attendees to swap at the bar.
After a crushing election defeat – the worst in Tory history – this was not a victorious farewell in the manner of Tony Blair’s 2006 exit. Rather, it was part rally and part sorrowful goodbye, as Sunak looked back on 14 years of Tory government. It was the kind of speech which many now former Tory MPs wished he had made earlier: one that emphasised points of continuity from 2010 to 2024. Spliced into it were a smattering of jibes poking fun at Keir Starmer’s current woes. ‘We warned that Labour would tax more and borrow more,’ he said ‘because we all know that socialists always run out of other people’s money – ‘something by the way Lord Alli is finding out.’ Elsewhere, he joked ‘this is such a hot ticket I’m surprised Keir Starmer hasn’t got someone to buy him one’.
He admitted the ‘devastating loss’ was ‘hard’ for the party, and that they ‘need to learn the lessons’ of their defeat’, telling members ‘we were devastated to lose so many good Conservatives’. There was time for contrition, Sunak, said, declaring, ‘We need to learn the lessons of this defeat. We did not get everything right in office –no government ever does, and we do now need to reflect on that.’ But, switching from defence to attack, he said the focus now should be on not letting ‘Keir Starmer rewrite history. The last Labour government left us a note, saying there was no money left. We left them inflation back at target, mortgage rates falling, and the fastest growing economy in the G7’. It was a message which found favour with the room, a self-selecting group who had come to say goodbye.
But the main message which Sunak got across was one of unity. On a day when three Tory contenders ganged up on the fourth, the former prime minister urged the party to rally behind his successor and blamed infighting for Labour’s landslide victory in July. Sunak ended his speech ‘with one, final ask of you: whoever wins this contest, give them your backing. We must end the division, the backbiting, the squabbling. We mustn’t nurse old grudges but build new friendships. We must always remember what unites us rather than obsessing about where we might differ.’ He added ‘because when we turn in on ourselves we lose; and the country ends up with a Labour government’ before concluding thus:
Let’s use this conference to look to the future and ensure that one of our four candidates is not just the next leader of our party but our next prime minister too. And with that, I hand this conference over to them.
Sunak’s address was received well, but it was a speech which focused less on his legacy than Labour’s failures and the future of the Tory party. Attendees streaming out the room remarked that they felt cheered by his optimism: a reminder that, for members, the focus is now predominantly on the future rather than re-examining the past. For Sunak, this final act of duty was a neat way to bring down the curtain on his two years as leader: a way of saying thanks without hogging the limelight at the expense of others.
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