Rishi Sunak has changed the Tory mood. But the party is at risk of destroying itself as a result - analysis by Dan Falvey
Rishi Sunak has changed the Tory mood music
PA
The mood in Manchester at the Conservative Party Conference is a far cry from the feeling when the party met in Birmingham 12 months ago.
Back then Liz Truss was in charge and the fall out from her and Kwasi Kwarteng's so-called "mini-budget" was in full flow.
Voting intention polls showed the Tories plummeting, ministers were openly speaking out against their own Government policies, and party members wandering around the conference looked as if they were ready to throw up.
At one fringe event last year titled "Can the Tories win the next election?" the four speakers on the panel spent an hour depressing those in attendance as they outlined just how doomed the Conservatives were.
WATCH: Penny Mordaunt on the Tories' fight
"Could we win if we changed leader?" No. "Could we win if we radically overhauled our policies?" No. "What about if Sir Keir Starmer was forced out as Labour leader and Jeremy Corbyn returned?" No.
No hope, no chance, reluctantly accepting of defeat at the ballot box.
Fast forward to now and there was a rather different atmosphere at Rishi Sunak's first conference as party leader. This time there was real fight in the party.
And "fight" was the central message of Penny Mordaunt's speech to the conference shortly before Rishi Sunak addressed the crowd.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Rishi Sunak's first conference has been dominated by 'fight'
GB NEWS"We face the fight of our lives. And our country needs us again, to stand up and fight," she said in a speech that contained the word "fight" a total of 27 times.
This is no longer a party which appears willing to just roll over and accept they have lost the next general election, instead there is a feeling of combativeness, eager to take the battle to the Opposition.
Following the Conservatives' surprise win in the Uxbridge by-election - credited largely due to the candidate's anti-Ulez message - Sunak senses an opportunity to win over votes by ripping up the Westminster consensus on issues such as net zero and HS2.
Presenting his message via his conference slogan "long term decisions for a brighter future", he's sought to create a clear dividing line between the Tories and Labour.
Liz Truss and supporters on her wing of the party have fight in them too. At their "growth rally" on the fringes of the conference they set out an agenda they believed was necessary in order to win the next election.
MPs who belong to The New Conservatives group of politicians have also set out their demands for taxes that they believe will make the Tories more electable.
There is no shortage of ideas at this conference and no one is afraid of fighting for the policies they believe will help the party win in 2024.
The problem is, for all the fight in the party, the fight is largely being directed at itself.
Rather than presenting a unified vision that the Conservatives can take to the country in an election, MPs are at war with each other.
The Tories may have renewed energy but unless they start presenting a unified vision, their efforts may be completely wasted.
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