LIZZY BUCHAN: Empty seats at Tory conference underline grim reality for troubled party

On the last night of Tory conference, I walked past a near empty room where a handful of people were dancing to ABBA.

It was only 10.15pm, prime time for party faithful and corporate lobbyists wanting to rub shoulders with Tory big beasts.

But the sad sight of less than a dozen people grooving to "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" shows how times have changed.

Once one of the most successful political parties in history, the Tories are down and out.

Labour are in power, Reform are eating their lunch and even the Lib Dems are parking their tanks on the lawns of Tory shires.

Their polling is dire and the lacklustre conference attendance underlined the grim reality for any Tories feeling hopeful. After spending 14 years in power, they must grapple with the fact that is that no one is listening.

READ MORE: Kemi Badenoch pledges to scrap Stamp Duty as Tories desperately battle for attention

Many of the shadow cabinet delivered their speeches to rooms with rows of empty seats.

Plans to deport hundreds of thousands of people or to slash £47billion from welfare and other public spending barely caused a ripple - because the chances of the Tories getting anywhere near power are so remote.

Even the protesters who usually gather outside the ring of steel surrounding the conference hadn’t bothered to turn up.

A joke doing the rounds was everyone was spending too much money as it was too easy to get a drink in the usually packed hotel bar.

As a Mirror journalist, Tory conference has always been fertile ground.

Dark arts, power plays, gaffes, dodgy dancing - it had it all.

At last year's conference, the mood was downbeat but the leadership contest - which eventually saw Kemi Badenoch elected - kept everyone occupied.

The vibe wasn’t even gloomy this year. There was no vibe at all.

People muttered in corridors about how empty it was, despite careful attempts to rearrange the furniture to conceal how few stands there were this year.

Hardly any mention was made of Nigel Farage, who loomed large over the conference.

Whispers about Kemi Badenoch's leadership swirled but no one seemed fired up enough to do anything about it.

Having watched Andy Burnham's naked leadership ambitions backfire at Labour conference last week, the Tory heir apparent, Robert Jenrick, carefully toed the line.

Ms Badenoch decided to use this conference to unleash a policy blitz - mass deportations, £47billion in spending cuts, scrapping everything from the Climate Change Act to Stamp Duty.

Her speech - one of the few where the hall was packed out - was a hit with Tory faithful.

The problem is the party has shot its credibility with voters and it's pretty hard for a Shadow Cabinet made up of people who served under Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson to claim they offer an alternative.

Ms Badenoch made a stab at suggesting the Tories could claim the more moderate ground on the economy but her plans on immigration will never out-Reform Reform.

She has probably bought herself some time with the party - at least until the looming nightmare of the local elections in May.

But was anyone else listening?

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