By James Hanson

Once upon a time, the Conservative Party conference really mattered.

Thousands of members travelled from all over the country for it. The Westminster press pack attended en masse. Corporate lobbyists paid huge sums for stands. And the leader’s speech almost always led the evening news.

This was not some bygone era, but just a couple of years ago. In fact, as recently as 2021, Tory conference was dominated by talk of a decade of Boris Johnson in Number 10 - fresh from a stunning victory over Labour in the Hartlepool by-election and enjoying the so-called ‘vaccine boost’ in the polls. The oldest and most successful political party in the Western world seemed as dominant as ever.

What a difference four years make. Having attended the Labour conference in Liverpool last week, I was struck by how few of my media colleagues said they’d be travelling on to Manchester for the Tory gathering. The party just isn’t where the story’s at anymore. Both Labour and Reform UK now see each other as their main opponent, with the Conservatives relegated to a punch line - Sir Keir Starmer joked “remember them?” last week.

The fundamental question hanging over this year’s conference in Manchester is simple: is this the Tories’ last gasp? Are we witnessing the death throes of a once mighty electoral force? Has the party of Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher simply run out of road? Many Conservatives have already made up their minds, with a........

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