'I thought I'd see lots of sad Tories at the Conservative conference - only the weather was miserable'

For the first time since their historic election defeat, the Tories met in Birmingham for their annual party conference this week.

Walking around the International Convention Centre, you might expect to see lots of sad faces. But the mood was fairly positive.

Like the rest of the country, the Conservatives saw the writing on the wall a long time ago. The election put them out of their misery.

READ MORE: We asked every Conservative leadership candidate one question about the North

Now they can be honest about the mistakes they made. And some senior Conservatives have not held back in their criticism.

There's a general consensus that the Tories did not deliver on many of their promises - although some seem to be in denial about their failures in the North. As one former MP puts it, "we were obsessing over ourselves as opposed to listening to what the country wants".

That's not to say that the scrapping has stopped. The race to replace Rishi Sunak as the party's leader has dominated the conference with rival camps accused of plotting against each other to secure a place in the final two before the winner is decided by members.

The party wants to move on, branding the conference with the slogan 'renew and rebuild'. Mr Sunak has moved out of the way, appearing only for a farewell speech on Sunday (September 29), making room for the four leaderships candidates to be heard.

In fact, it feels like the party wants to forget that the last 14 years happened. While the official party shop sells mugs, toby jugs and coasters with the faces of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, the faces of the last five Prime Ministers are nowhere to be seen.

That is except for Liz Truss who made an appearance at the conference, claiming that the party could have won the election had she stayed in post longer than 49 days. The odd Boris Johnson badge can be seen on lapels too with many still speaking positively of him.

The leadership candidates, however, want a fresh start. They have pitched themselves as saviours of a party in an 'existential' crisis.

But despite all this talk about the party being at the brink of oblivion, the general mood at the conference has been surprisingly spiritedly. Even the miserable weather throughout the four days in Birmingham did not seem to dampen the mood of the event.

The Tories have been relieved of the burden of power. This was a chance to reflect, have a drink and, in the case of some members who may have had too many, sing 'Rule Britannia' at the top of your voice as you meet up with old chums and have a chinwag.

The postmortem

There's an obvious question for Conservatives to answer, three months on from their historic election defeat - what went wrong? The honesty has been refreshing. On Sunday (September 29), Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen - the most powerful Conservative in the north, and perhaps in the country - said that his party were 'absolutely terrible', 'incompetent' and lost the trust of the British people.

He praised the party for promising 'exactly the right thing' under Boris Johnson in 2019, but accused the previous government of failing to 'level up' the country. Others on the same panel - including former government minister Mel Stride - identified 'competence' over migration, the NHS and the economy, trust, citing partygate, and a lack of economic growth since 2008, as causes of their downfall.

Meanwhile, Michael Gove - who served in the government for 13 of the last 14 years - described Liz Truss's mini-budget in 2022 as 'flawed', despite defending her intentions. The ex-Prime Minister, however, claimed that she would have won if she stayed in power.

But there is one thing that some Tories still seem to be in deniable about - their broken promises over transport in the North. One senior Tory summed it up, saying that the region is not 'entitled' to investment in public transport and must be more 'imaginative'.

Asked whether the party has had to reflect on the mistakes it made in government, former Bolton West MP Chris Green, who lost his seat in July, told the Manchester Evening News: "I think the party was reflecting on where we were going wrong whilst we were still in government and that's partly why there was a significant level of infighting. That demonstrated to the country, it's not just a lack of delivery, it's also, we're obsessing over ourselves as opposed to listening to what the country wants and delivering on that.

"That introspection has continued but at least we're doing it in obscurity rather than in the public gaze."

The spectres

It's not surprising to see the faces of Tory idols Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill at a Conservative Party conference. But you might expect to see some living Prime Ministers' faces around too - let's not forget, the Tories had five over the last eight years alone.

Rishi Sunak delivered a farewell speech on Sunday (September 29), while his predecessor spoke at an event the following day to let everyone know she's not going away. Responding to criticism about her contribution to the Conservatives' downfall, she made a not-so-subtle jibe about Theresa May's performance in the 2017 election before telling a packed out hall that she's not done with politics.

She also argued that her colleagues made a 'stupid' move by 'undermining' Mr Johnson, who would have given the party their 'best chance' of winning. Mr Johnson, meanwhile, has been busy promoting his new memoirs which just happens to come out next week.

The future

Each of the candidates hoping to lead the party have spoken about their priorities during the conference with immigration, the economy and 'Conservative values' all featuring high up on the list. But the North of England has hardly had a mention so far.

The Manchester Evening News has asked all of the candidates - Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat - in the last few days about their offer to the North, what went wrong with 'levelling up' and what they would do differently. The three who responded agree with the 'levelling up' mantra, stating that they see spreading opportunity across the country as a priority.

But some have articulated their vision more precisely than others. You can read what each of the candidates said here.