Rishi Sunak has urged the Conservative Party to unite behind whoever wins the contest to replace him as leader.In a speech at the party’s conference in Birmingham, Sunak said: “We must end the division, the backbiting, the squabbling.”We mustn’t nurse old grudges but build new friendships.”In a break with tradition, Sunak will not be delivering a big end of conference speech to the party faithful on Wednesday.He said he did not want to be a “distraction” to the four MPs vying to replace him as leader, who will each give a 20 minute speech on Wednesday morning instead. Party members queued for more than an hour to get into Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, which was transformed from a classical music venue to something more like a nightclub for Sunak’s farewell speech.The lights were dimmed and two blue neon Conservative logos hung from the ceiling.Former members of Sunak’s Downing Street operation watched on as their old boss bid farewell as the Conservatives’ leader.Sunak began by apologising to Conservative members for the party’s general election defeat, telling them: “I am only sorry that your efforts could not deliver the results you deserved.””It wasn’t you,” a member shouted back.He insisted the Tories could not let Sir Keir Starmer “rewrite history” and celebrated his party’s record of 14 years in office.There were jokes about Sir Keir’s acceptance of freebies, with Sunak saying the conference was such a “hot ticket” he was surprised the Labour leader “hasn’t asked someone to buy it for him”.But he ended with a plea for party unity.”We must always remember what unit …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnRishi Sunak has urged the Conservative Party to unite behind whoever wins the contest to replace him as leader.In a speech at the party’s conference in Birmingham, Sunak said: “We must end the division, the backbiting, the squabbling.”We mustn’t nurse old grudges but build new friendships.”In a break with tradition, Sunak will not be delivering a big end of conference speech to the party faithful on Wednesday.He said he did not want to be a “distraction” to the four MPs vying to replace him as leader, who will each give a 20 minute speech on Wednesday morning instead. Party members queued for more than an hour to get into Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, which was transformed from a classical music venue to something more like a nightclub for Sunak’s farewell speech.The lights were dimmed and two blue neon Conservative logos hung from the ceiling.Former members of Sunak’s Downing Street operation watched on as their old boss bid farewell as the Conservatives’ leader.Sunak began by apologising to Conservative members for the party’s general election defeat, telling them: “I am only sorry that your efforts could not deliver the results you deserved.””It wasn’t you,” a member shouted back.He insisted the Tories could not let Sir Keir Starmer “rewrite history” and celebrated his party’s record of 14 years in office.There were jokes about Sir Keir’s acceptance of freebies, with Sunak saying the conference was such a “hot ticket” he was surprised the Labour leader “hasn’t asked someone to buy it for him”.But he ended with a plea for party unity.”We must always remember what unit …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
