'I went to the Tory conference to learn how party members were feeling, and what I found surprised me'

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"Would you like a Kemi lanyard?" asks the chirpy young lady at the entrance.

Erm, it's not top of my Christmas list, but I suppose it's the thought that counts.

One thing there is no shortage of at the Conservative Party conference is freebies. No suits or designer specs, but if Robert Jenrick T-shirts or Tom Tugendhat foam fingers are your thing, then you're at the right place.

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James Cleverly supporters are even running a free-to-enter tombola for their merchandise, while Kemi Badenoch's team are also doing their bit for the party's health by offering them apples to put in their 'Vote Kemi' tote bags.

For a party that has just suffered its worst defeat in 200 years, the mood is strangely cheerful. Defeated election candidates are happy to chat about rebuilding the party, and their ambitions to return to office. One party member from Shropshire, who declined to be named, says: "I thought it was going to be like a wake, but it isn't. People seem to be genuinely looking forward to rebuilding the party."

Councillor Simon Bennett, recently elected as Conservative group leader on Wolverhampton Council, says: "With the leadership election that's going on, there's new-found enthusiasm and energy amongst members."

Surprisingly, he also says the party was due for a spell in opposition.

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"I think it was about time, we were stale, I think we had lost our focus, we had lost our direction," he says. "This is an opportunity now to take stock, and get a new leader in who is going to take us forward, and take us back into government in the next five years at the next general election, because, absolutely, I feel we can do that.

"We've just got to offer people the right policies, and that's not just Conservative voters, but people who might not consider themselves Conservative, but actually the policies that matter to them as working people."

MP Jane Stevenson, who saw her comfortable 7,847-vote majority overturned at the general election, also sounds an upbeat tone.

"I think it's a really positive mood, it's about the leadership candidates, analysing where we went wrong, and what we are rebuilding - so no, it's really positive, and I think some people are saying it feels better than the Labour one, because there's all this thought about what Labour are doing, and winter fuel, and all these decisions that have come quite quickly, so it's a good mood."

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Like Councillor Bennett, Miss Stevenson is backing Robert Jenrick in his bid for the leadership.

Mike Newton, who unsuccessfully stood at the general election, says he knew quite early on during the campaign that the odds were stacked against him.

"I think it had been evident for a while that it was going to be a tremendous reach to win the seat, I think it would have been an earthquake if I had won.

"I started to feel that the tide was against us when I was campaigning up in Tettenhall Regis, the really indicative middle-income estates and roads, where we really would have needed to get the numbers up. It was clear that Labour had done a lot of preparatory work in marketing over a long time.

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"Nevertheless, we thought really hard and I think we had a relatively good result, and I'm very grateful to the people in the party who helped me, and to [Labour MP] Warinder Juss, who is a great guy and I was beaten fair and square by a very good man."

Despite his defeat, Mr Newton says he thought he would probably like another chance to contest the seat, and says the conference is the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of recent years.

"Naturally there was going to be some reflection, after the scale of the defeat we have just had, but it's been reflection in a good way.

"I don't think there's been excessive recrimination behind the scenes, I think people have generally not deluded themselves about the things that we need to fix, we need a better offer to working families, we need to be better on migration, seen as broadly more supportive of business, and more competent across the board. I think we discuss those things in a relatively mature and humble way."

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He says next year's local elections will be a crucial measure of the party's progress. But, he says, politics today is far more volatile than it was in the past, and people change the way they vote more readily.

"Cycles are much more truncated than they used to be - maybe 25 years ago, the size of a majority like Keir's got would perhaps preclude someone else getting back into power in five years' time, but in this new world where opinions change very rapidly, everything's out there because of digital, then we might have a chance in five years' time."

Back at Robert Jenrick's campaign stand, Helen Mayer is proudly wearing her "We want Bobby J" baseball cap – free, of course, to anybody who wants one. If her man wins the contest, how hopeful is she that he will be the next prime minister?

"The next general election is a long way off," she says.

"But I think at the last general election, Labour's win was a mile wide and an inch deep."

We will find out who the new Conservative leader is on October 31. It will be a while longer before we find out whether he or she will put the party back in power.

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