Defiant Liz Truss upstages Tory leadership hopefuls - but they're 'grateful' to dodge her endorsement

This is the theme of Monday’s sessions, where leadership rivals do their best to look impressive, while the former Prime Minister reminds people just why so many have given up on the Conservatives.

Consider her complete lack of endorsement for the candidates, albeit something they are grateful for. Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly are all trying to drum up support, yet Ms Truss is instead making headlines by boasting she’d have done better than Rishi Sunak at the election.

It’s the political equivalent of an arsonist turning up at the scene of the crime, then telling the firefighters the hose isn’t working, but not to mind as she’s got a bucket of petrol. Her presence in Birmingham is baffling, a vanity tour that has infuriated MPs who so wanted this conference to be about what the party could be, rather than what it was. Still at least she found time to declare her support for Argentina's far right leader Javier Milei, a man whose policies have seen poverty levels reach 50 per cent. Yes 50.

Away from this unelected un-apologist, Mr Tugendhat started his day by telling delegates his party had to “rebuild” trust, and it was a far larger enemy than the rival parties. He explained, in what we can’t assume isn’t a typo, “the enemy is trust. We have eroded trust in ourselves and we need to rebuild trust in the Conservative Party.”

Elsewhere, Mr Jenrick decided to go deep on policy, telling members he wants to “get migration done”, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever heard Mr Jenrick speak about anything. He is now advocating for a cap on legal migration in the tens of thousands or fewer, making the short jump from opposing illegal migration to simply not wanting more people coming to Britain. Received well in the room, it shows the direction the Tory party is heading. As Mr Jenrick put it, he and Nigel Farage agree on “everything”.

Appearing in her own Q&A, Ms Badenoch told members nobody knew what the Tories stood for any more, and pledged to champion “confident conservatism”.

She also said Labour could already be seen as “the bad guys” in Government, claiming “we’re the good guys”, which suggests she’s moved on after hacking Harriet Harman’s website in 2008.

Then there was Mr Cleverly, a man Ms Truss said “does what he’s told”. He said that those offering a simple solution to tackling migration “don’t know what they are talking about”, adding that “under my watch” the “asylum rejection rate went up, our deportation rate went up, our net migration came down”.

Ultimately, none of what they said is the main story today. There was space to see all of them at their events. The main character, the biggest queues, and the most news, came from the former member for South West Norfolk.