Daniel Soan

Last week I called Andy Burnham's speech consequential, but it was very much full, as Ed Davey said, full of 'definitely maybes' by 2040. @KemiBadenoch delivered a belter of a speech today, full of sparkle, but also setting out basic Conservative principles and full of policy meat. The IHT promise will get the headlines but there was far more to it than that. The stuff about the Reform "weirdos" and ruling our reuniting the right should get attention, plus the passage on her ethnicity and what it means to be English, where she absolutely socked it to Suella Braverman without naming her. The passage on how to bring about growth was especially strong. I've been attending party conferences for 40 years. This one got off to a slow start, but ended with the party members going home with a spring in their step. Rarely, if ever, in those 40 years, have I seen a party so united behind its leader - both MPs and party members. And to achieve that within less than two years of becoming leader is quite an achievement. Yes, last year's conference speech was a turning point, but so was her firing of Robert Jenrick. With one decisive step, she ripped out the cancer, and has never looked back. It's now up to her shadow cabinet to demonstrate that this isn't a one woman party.