Northern Ireland Tory event is left disappointed when the four Conservative leadership hopefuls fail to attend - until one of them finally does after most of the gathering have already left
The Northern Ireland Conservatives narrowly avoided embarrassment at their conference event in Birmingham last night when a leadership candidate finally showed – but only one, after the event was largely over.
Local Tories had gathered for a reception on the last night of the four-day conference which ends at lunchtime today with speeches from the four hopefuls to replace Rishi Sunak.
The NI Conservatives had expected all four to address them: Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat. (Click here to read our editorial: ‘It is a bad sign that leadership hopefuls ignored NI event’)
The reception, which was busy with NI members of the party and Tory officials, got under way at 6pm. The first speaker was expected by 6.30pm. But then word came that Mr Jenrick was sending his apologies. But as the clock drifted towards 7pm it seemed none of them were coming.
As 7pm got closer, people started to leave the reception, seemingly concluding that none of the quartet was going to appear as planned.
At one point Mr Tugendhat and his entourage came into the main conference building, from the various reception rooms outside where many exhibitors have stands, lifting hopes among the NI Tories that at last at least one of the contenders was going to address them.
But the group walked nearby and briskly past towards a flight of stairs, almost as if unaware of the NI Tory event. Later he and his followers emerged again but walked determinedly in another direction, again bypassing the Northern Ireland reception as if it didn’t exist.
Then Mr Jenrick came into view as he too walked past. But by that stage Mr Jenrick’s wife had turned up in person to say that he would not be able to appear.
Word filtered through that Ms Badenoch was unable to be there because, according to the rumours in the room, she was preparing for her speech. Other reports said that she was protecting her voice from damage ahead of the big day.
Seemingly there was no word about Mr Cleverly’s absence.
Shortly after 7pm, the NI shadow secretary Alex Burghart, who earlier addressed the reception, left with his assistant.
There had even been a sense earlier in the event that speeches were being strung out until the candidates arrived. The NI Tory chair Paul Leeman spoke, as did Glyn Roberts of Retail NI, one of the sponsors of the evening, and an official from Heathrow spoke too. Mr Burghart himself was next to give a short speech.
He put an upbeat gloss on the aftermath of a dismal general election result for the Conservatives in July, and spoke about how “our party … can make gains all over our country and I want Northern Ireland to be a firm part of that conversation”.
When Mr Leeman then asked the former NI secretary Theresa Villiers to speak, she cheerfully addressed the event, while dropping in the fact that she had not prepared anything. Ms Villiers said that “whilst it may be some years now since I held the post of secretary of state I retain a tremendous affection for Northern Ireland and I know it is a place that has so much going for it”.
The warm words to the audience could not mask a sense of the time being expanded until the speakers showed up. But none was to be seen. Mr Leeman then asked the people present to enjoy themselves and to have another glass until the guests arrived.
More than an hour after that point, at 7.30pm, the last of the scheduled speakers Mr Tugendhat who had been due around that time was still not there. It seemed increasingly clear that not one of the four was going to attend.
Various NI Tories spoke to the News Letter and to BBC and UTV to express their disappointment.
We asked Mr Leeman, who looked disappointed, about the absence but he declined to do so.
Did word of this humiliating saga and the fact that it was gaining the interest of the journalists present, spread to Mr Tugendhat’s team? As the clock got closer to 8pm, and the majority of people had left the reception, and with no more drink of nibbles being served, word came the Mr Tugendhat was indeed going to appear. Finally, at around 8pm, he did.
He mixed with the rump of NI Tories still there, before speaking a few sentences about wanting normal non sectarian politics in Northern Ireland. This was well received by the remainder of gathering, who constituted much less then half the original crowd.
Dean Temple, an NI Tory, spoke to the News Letter before he knew that Mr Tugendhat was appearing.
He made clear his disappointment at the evening: “We are supposed to be the Conservative and unionist party and through to the backstop and the Windsor Framework we had failed Northern Ireland.
"And here were are at the Northern Ireland reception at the Conservative Party conference and all four of the potential leaders, potential prime ministers even, have just not bothered to show up.”
By the time Mr Tugendhat appeared, Jamie Clough, 18, (pictured), a pupil at Regent House School in Newtownards and a member of the party, had like most guests left.
He told us: “Well I am surprised that none of the four leadership candidates did arrive at the Northern Ireland reception party. It would mean a lot to Northern Ireland Conservatives if at least one of the candidates had turned for a short time.”
Northern Ireland, he said, was “still an integral part of the United Kingdom”.
When Mr Clough later heard that Mr Tugendhat had in fact arrived late he said it was “very disappointing to miss him”.
Frank Shivers, Treasury of the NI Tories, spoke to broadcasters before Mr Tugendhat’s very late appearance to say that he was “very disappointed” at the no-show, but not embarrassed. he said that they would ask today the four teams why they had not fulfilled their word.
After Mr Tugendhat’s late and brief appearance Mr Leeman said that he was “delighted” one of the candidates had turned up, but was disappointed the others had not done.
He said that he knew they were busy and that the fact that it was the last night of the conference, before their big speech, made it hard for them too.
Last year Rishi Sunak and his NI secretary Chris Heaton-Harris attended the Northern Ireland reception, as Conservative prime ministers traditionally do.
l Morning View, page 14