THE Tory gathering in Manchester is the conference of a party preparing for opposition — or, more exactly, for its next turn in government.

That is not to say that Rishi Sunak has given up, of course. Labour’s poll lead remains formidable, but it has narrowed somewhat since Sunak started to ditch his bland techno-management style for that of an aggressive culture warrior, championing the supposedly beleaguered motorist in particular.

Nevertheless, it remains odds-on that the end is in sight for this miserable period of Conservative government. It has been uninspiring even for diehard Tories, raised on the battle stories of Thatcher, who find little to cheer in the record of 13 years in office.

Brexit is the only exception, and that was achieved against the advice of the leadership of their party.

So the mood in Manchester is morose — representatives are mostly skipping the conference hall and heading to the fringe, where the battle over the Tory future is being played out.

There the demand is for tax cuts for business, deregulation and a stepped-up war against the “woke” — meaning indulgence for racism, misogyny, climate denial and increased authoritarianism.

This is not a programme that Sunak is likely to swallow whole before the next election. But, as Telegraph commentator Camilla Tominey noted today, nor can he “carry on with this middling, centrist approach.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s benefits sadism and Suella Braverman’s unabashed hostility to human rights and migrants, together with Sunak’s own abandonment of net zero commitments, show that this message is getting through.

Yet in the short term, it is not an agenda for winning converts to conservatism, more one for giving already committed Tory voters reasons to dig out their passports and head to the polling station when the day comes.

So the Manchester fringe is about the more distant Tory future. They can assume that a Keir Starmer government, with its aversion to doing anything that might make a difference to anyone, will be far from unbeatable. So they are preparing for 2029 or thereabouts.

 And what does this glimpse of future ruling-class politics look like? It will be a poisonous admixture of Liz Truss and Donald Trump.

The shortest-serving prime minister in British history turned up to the conference unrepentant. Only her timing was off, she acknowledged. Her offer of huge tax cuts, to be inevitably followed by big reductions in spending on already-beleaguered and impoverished public services, remains the stuff of Tory dreams.

However, it is a nightmare for almost everyone else. Economic libertarianism, the pure doctrine of Hayek and Friedman, has a popular following adjacent to non-existent. Truss can win a vote of Tory Party members on that basis, but from the electorate? Hardly.

So the neoliberals know they need the culture warriors too. Social conservatism, as even the correspondence columns in this newspaper show, has a far broader cachet. Not a majority necessarily, but a minority to be reckoned with.

Reaction needs to re-effect the fusion of conservatism and classical liberalism which got it through the 20th century.

Thus the Tories will aim to reproduce the Trump trick of tacking a lot of populist demagogy onto elite economics to secure a majority. Boris Johnson’s premiership was just a dry run. Not for nothing does Nigel Farage boast that the Tories are becoming like the Ukip he used to lead.

After 13 years of austerity, wage cuts and social degradation, people want change. And if they are not offered the change they need, the danger is that many will vote for the only change on offer. Trump-Trussism is the danger lurking behind the stasis of vacuous Starmerism.