Rishi Sunak to duck out of four-day Tory convention after ‘a couple of hours’

Rishi Sunak will spend just a few hours at the Tory Party conference this year – despite still being leader.

The defeated Prime Minister will not deliver a keynote speech at the end, which will see hundreds of die-hard Tories descend on Birmingham for four days. Instead he will let the four MPs slugging it out to replace him take centre stage.

His resignation following the party’s General Election mauling sparked a messy race to become leader of the opposition. Earlier this week Dame Priti Patel saw her dream of leading the Tories come to an end when she missed out in the first ballot.

Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick is now the frontrunner after securing the backing of 28 MPs. Kemi Badenoch came second with 22, with James Cleverly getting 21.

One more candidate will be eliminated next week before the party conference, which will be held between September 29 and October 2. Tom Tugendhat, with 17 votes, and Mel Stride, with 16, are in the most danger of missing out.

Bookmakers’ favourite Mr Jenrick has claimed he will be the “change candidate”, despite having served in Government under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Mr Sunak. He has vowed to resurrect the Rwanda scheme if he ever makes it to No10, in spite of its eye-watering cost.

According to the Daily Express, Mr Sunak will be at the event for a matter of hours. He announced his resignation on July 5, but won’t be replaced until November 2 – almost four months later.

On the final day, the four remaining MPs will be given 15 minutes to make their case, it is understood. It is a far cry from last year, when Mr Sunak used his crucial address to cut back HS2 and announce plans to make it illegal for children born after 2009 to ever buy cigarettes.

Mr Jenrick, who once ordered Disney murals at an asylum centre to be painted over because they looked too welcoming, is now the bookmakers’ favourite to win. The right-winger has taken an increasingly hard line after serving under Suella Braverman at the Home Office before quitting over Rwanda.

But he claimed he would be the change candidate in the race. He claimed in an interview with Times Radio: “I’m standing in this campaign as the change candidate. I don’t believe that an opposition like us, faced with the worst defeat in our history, can simply put our fingers in our ears, hope that the public have buyer’s remorse and that they will come back to us.

“I think we have to fiercely defend the things we got right and we have to be painfully honest about the things we got wrong, whether that’s migration, the economy, the NHS or elsewhere.”