THE Conservative conference and Rishi Sunak’s speech are unlikely to result in a boost for the party in the opinion polls, according to Sir John. Curtice.

The professor of politics at Strathclyde University told GB News: “There is actually a lovely piece that came out just a couple of days ago showing that if you take all of the party conferences from 1955 through to last year, on average, their effect is zero.

“Occasionally the odd conference makes a difference but usually by the end of October, the polls look very similar to what they were at the end of August, so we shouldn’t set our expectations too high.

“As far as the Prime Minister’s net zero statement is concerned, well, basically by now the Conservatives at 27% are exactly where they were at the end of August, it’s not clear that this made that much impact.”

In a discussion with Patrick Christys, he continued: “That’s not to say that today’s speech is not without interest, because clearly this is an attempt by the Prime Minister to convey a different style, and in a sense to try and give some indication that perhaps he’s not just somebody who can simply manage the ship, but can also give it some sense of direction.

“The interesting thing, however, is whether or not Rishi Sunak’s attempt to change his style will make Sir Keir Starmer think about whether he can simply, for the most part, not say too much about how he would improve Britain but simply rely on attacking the government, because now we’ve got a government that in a sense is trying to distance itself from a past, of both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.”

He added: “Neither Mr Sunak nor Sir Keir Starmer are the most charismatic individuals. Neither of them stands up highly with the public when you ask them whether they think of them favourably or unfavourably.”