Conservative Party Conference

Kevin Davis, 4 October 2026 I’ve lost count of how many Conservative Party Conferences I’ve attended over the years. I’ve stood in conference halls as a parliamentary candidate facing an uphill fight, and as a London council leader trying to make policy work when the rubber actually meets the road.

I won’t be there this year. A huge workload and also a recognition that mid-term conferences tend to be holding patterns means there are other priorities. Conferences are time to catch up with friends and I will miss that.

We are living through deeply turbulent political times, and it is past time for honest self-reflection.

The candid truth? However much of a wonderful job Kemi is doing the party has a hollowed-out machine. The greatest election-winning party in 200 years has very little capacity outside London.

When you run a London borough or fight a tough parliamentary division, you learn quickly that rhetoric won’t cover potholes, fix local services, or win over a sceptical voter on their doorstep on a wet Tuesday in November.

Too many quarters of our party lost the instinct for competence. The muscle memory of local organising—voter identification, hyper-local campaigning, building a bench of credible community leaders—was traded for short-term headline chasing and reactive Westminster drama. You can feel that deficit keenly right now. Across the country, voters aren't just angry; worse, many have stopped listening because they doubt our ability to deliver the basics, or even a simple leaflet.

And yet, despite the pessimism that hangs in the air, there is not despair.

Why? Because if you bypass the hotel bars and listen to the people running local associations, the councillors quietly holding the line in hostile territory, and the young activists who still show up out of genuine conviction, you see the real foundation.

Conservatism at its best has never been an ideological dogma shouted from a television studio. It is practical, grounded, and rooted in community: fiscal discipline, personal responsibility, effective local government, and pride of place. We lost our way through coalitions and Covid.

Kemi knows the road back is not quick, and a polished speech at conference won't fix it. It requires rebuilding our party’s capabilities from the ground up: professionalising our campaigning, respecting local government as our frontline, and earning back the public's trust in our sheer competence.

It is a monumental task. But, we can be fighting fit by the next election. The question then will be, do you want 200 years of Conservatism or are you so hacked off with the mainstrem parties you will vote for anything that offers to break the system.

Our world is in flux, our politics is broken, and we are looking for new solutions. But they need to be more than vibes and warm words. What do you think the future holds?