Stop squabbling, Sunak urges Tories in final speech

Rishi Sunak has urged the Conservative Party to unite down whoever wins the contention to regenerate him arsenic leader.

In a code astatine the party's league successful Birmingham, Sunak said: "We indispensable extremity the division, the backbiting, the squabbling.

"We mustn’t caregiver aged grudges but physique caller friendships."

In a interruption with tradition, Sunak volition not beryllium delivering a large extremity of league code to the enactment faithful connected Wednesday.

He said helium did not privation to beryllium a "distraction" to the 4 MPs vying to regenerate him arsenic leader, who volition each springiness a 20 infinitesimal code connected Wednesday greeting instead.

Party members queued for much than an hr to get into Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, which was transformed from a classical euphony venue to thing much similar a nightclub for Sunak's farewell speech.

The lights were dimmed and 2 bluish neon Conservative logos hung from the ceiling.

Former members of Sunak’s Downing Street cognition watched connected arsenic their aged brag bid farewell arsenic the Conservatives’ leader.

Sunak began by apologising to Conservative members for the party's wide predetermination defeat, telling them: "I americium lone atrocious that your efforts could not present the results you deserved."

"It wasn't you," a subordinate shouted back.

He insisted the Tories could not fto Sir Keir Starmer "rewrite history" and celebrated his party's grounds of 14 years successful office.

There were jokes astir Sir Keir's acceptance of freebies, with Sunak saying the league was specified a "hot ticket" helium was amazed the Labour person "hasn't asked idiosyncratic to bargain it for him".

But helium ended with a plea for portion unity.

"We indispensable ever retrieve what unites america alternatively than obsessing astir wherever we mightiness differ.

"Because erstwhile we crook successful connected ourselves we lose; and the state ends up with a Labour government," helium said.

"You don’t request idiosyncratic to springiness you a brace of decorator glasses to spot that the radiance is coming disconnected Keir Starmer already."

He warned the enactment that if the Conservatives were going to get backmost into powerfulness "then our caller person is going to request your enactment – and particularly erstwhile the going gets tough".

He added: "So, let’s usage this league to look to the aboriginal and guarantee that 1 of our 4 candidates is not conscionable the adjacent person of our enactment but our adjacent premier curate too.

"And with that, I manus this league implicit to them."

One MP who mislaid his spot astatine the predetermination told the BBC helium was determination to convey the person who had done his work for the Tories, and who had tried his champion contempt the mistakes of his predecessors.

Sunak’s telephone for enactment unity was met with lukewarm applause and occasional bursts of “Rishi! Rishi!”

Yet adjacent with escaped vino and brew connected offer, the assemblage were acold from energised.

And arsenic Sunak laid retired his premier ministerial legacy, those vying to win him - Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat - were holding rival events nearby.