The New Statesman

You might have missed it. Many people did.

But this week, the Conservatives met for their annual party conference in Manchester.

We'll get into the empty, ghostly vibes haunted by Margaret Thatcher in a second.

But Kemmy Badnock has just stepped away from the podium.

So let's take a look at what was said in her speech. I'm Rachel Cunnellith and this is the New

Statesman podcast. Joining me down the line from Manchester is Ethan Croft. Hello, Ethan. Hi,

Rachel. I managed to escape Manchester yesterday evening, but you are still there because you wanted

to be in the room where it happened where Kemi gave her big keynote speech while everyone was

nursing hangovers from the last night of conference. How did you find it? The stewards were very

enthusiastically telling us, standing room room only so the press were kind of

penned in to the side of the stage. Sorry, I have to ask, I have to ask, was it standing room

only? Just about. I mean, it was an odd vibe, right? Because the hall was obviously much

smaller than in previous years, because of just the nature of the political position at the

Tory parties in at the minute.

It was a collection of Duffers leafing through copies of the Daily Telegraph and then

very young, kind of young Tory, 20-year-old guys in construct suits.

I thought the speech was good.

It was well delivered.

I actually think Henry Bedrock is quite a good speaker.

I think it's probably one of her political strengths. She does have many weaknesses, but she had a bit of fire in her belly. They liked it. There were some standing ovations, some very long ones, including when she walked in, they just clapped for about five minutes. And she didn't. I noticed she kind of took a while before she told them to stop, which was quite

coming back. But then in terms of the substance, which I'm sure we'll get onto, the key message

...