The PM delivers short speech as bruising party conference comes to a close - The Yorkshire Post says

What has been a bruising maiden conference as Prime Minister, Liz Truss wrapped up with an attempt to rally support amongst party members and her MPs.

The PM, once again, reaffirmed that she was ready to make hard choices. But her U-turn on the mini-budget raises the question, is she actually willing to stick to them.

With discipline amongst Cabinet Ministers breaking down and backbench MPs facing the prospect of losing the next General Election, it was more a case of getting the speech over and done quickly.

The fact that there was no major policy announcement might just have been for the best - given how the flurry of tax cuts in the mini-budget sent the markets into a tailspin. It will at least give the Prime Minister a chance to find her feet again.

Ms Truss once again mentioned her time growing up in Leeds as an example of poor economic policy in a bid to justify her dash for growth.

Despite this supposed thirst for growth, there was little mention of levelling up. In fact, levelling up has felt very much like an afterthought ever since the Prime Minister has taken the keys to Number 10.

The speech was disrupted by protestors from Greenpeace, which united the party faithful. But once Ms Truss steps off home territory, she will have to confront the difficult realities of selling fracking to communities that have overwhelmingly rejected proposals in the past and show little sign of changing their minds.

The PM says that there is an anti-growth coalition but given the unrest in recent days, Ms Truss may just find that some of that coalition is in her own party or at the very least there are those who don’t share the same zeal for growth.