Isabel Loubser and Daisy Clague from the CNJ survey opinion in Birmingham

IT was almost like a great boulder weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Last year, party members visiting the Tory conference in Manchester appeared like condemned men – there are a lot of men, mainly in blue suits – wishing their day with the guillotine would come mercifully quick.

This year it was a tad more upbeat – odd given the trouncing the party received at the ballot box in July. No longer needing to pretend everything was totally really absolutely fine, they could comfortably now say that defeat was deserved and they were enjoying some reflective down time from being in charge.

The rough translation for this is: We’ve loved watching Keir Starmer get bashed for freebies and hospitality.

There is still some residual frustration with Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a snap election he knew he had no chance of winning and with heaps of candidate vacancies to fill, but there was a sense in Birmingham that many were happy the Band-aid had been finally ripped off.

While Mr Sunak is technically still acting as leader for another few weeks, the conference crowd seemed to enjoy not really having any leader at all – and, as Labour found in opposition, sometimes doing nothing but watch the government in action is the best way to make your ratings grow.

Instead of a conference, they enjoyed a silly beauty contest where leadership contenders saw supporters walking around with tote bags and foam fingers bearing their names.

The amount of blue merch which will be out of date this time next week is possibly in tune with a party struggling in some parts to understand the need for Net Zero policies.

Maybe some of this reflection in opposition we have heard about will trickle down to the local Tories in Camden.

They have to try and do better than three councilors at the local elections in 2026.

The final choice of leader may be crucial, positively or negatively, in a difficult search for new energetic and credible candidates to come forward.