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Rishi Sunak, Conservative leader, has used a farewell address to party members to warn that the Tories will be consigned to the margins of politics for good unless they end their internecine feuding.
“When we turn in on ourselves, we lose,” Sunak told activists in a low-key address on the first day of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham. “We must end the division and the backbiting and squabbling,” he added.
Sunak left the conference on Sunday to clear the stage for the four contenders who hope to succeed him as Tory leader, pleading with members: “Whoever wins the contest, give them your backing.”
His farewell speech was an informal affair, held in a nightclub-style environment with blue lighting and neon-lit blue Conservative “tree” logos, but carried a serious message to his often-divided party.
“We must always remember what unites us, rather than obsessing about where we might differ,” he said. Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly are vying to succeed him.
Sunak’s valedictory address came as it emerged that his former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden had been interviewed to assist police as part of the Gambling Commission probe into bets on the date of the election.
The first day of the Conservative conference saw the party assemble for its first annual gathering since its crushing defeat in the general election, which left the Conservatives with only 121 MPs.
The Financial Times counted fewer than 20 business people in attendance at an “SME Day” (for small and medium sized enterprises) event attended by former ministers.
However, the mood among many Tory members was far less subdued than might have been expected, given the party’s implosion on July 4.
Some Tory members appeared more upbeat than their counterparts at last week’s Labour conference in Liverpool, where activists were concerned about prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s first few months in office.
Sunak attacked Starmer’s “cruel” decision to withdraw winter fuel payments from most pensioners and lampooned the prime minister’s acceptance of free clothes and glasses from the Labour peer Lord Alli.
The Tory leader said: “Socialists always run out of other people’s money, something Lord Alli is finding out the hard way,” he said. Sunak added: “You don’t need designer glasses to see the shine is coming off Keir Starmer already.”
Tory activists cheered Sunak off the stage and claimed the former premier had been vindicated in warning before the election that Starmer would hike taxes and borrowing.
In a reminder of one of the worst scandal’s that beset the final weeks of Sunak’s premiership, Sky News reported on Sunday that his key lieutenant Oliver Dowden, former deputy prime minister, has been interviewed in the official investigation into betting on the date of the general election.
An investigation was launched in June when Craig Williams, Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide, and another Tory candidate were placed under investigation for allegedly placing bets on the date of the election, prompting the Conservative party to eventually withdrew support from them just days before the poll.
A Labour candidate was also suspended over placing bets on whether he would lose his seat.
Dowden spoke to police officers involved in the Gambling Commission probe earlier this summer to help their inquiries as part of their investigation into other figures, it was reported.
An ally of Dowden said he was never and is not under any sort of investigation by the Gambling Commission.