They may be only three months on from the worst election defeat in their history, but the Tories are still up for having a bit of fun.
Take Thérèse Coffey, who spent roughly a month serving as the country’s deputy prime minister under Liz Truss two years ago.
She was the highest-profile Conservative who turned up to an exclusive gig by Australian pop beefcake Peter Andre, organised by TikTok to mark the party’s conference in Birmingham.
Like everyone else in the Mooncat bar last night, Coffey spent much of the evening waiting patiently through a series of obscure singles and covers before the singer finally got to Mysterious Girl.
But Andre had other plans – ever the showman, he waded through the crowd during a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered and sang to the former environment secretary directly.
Coffey – who lost her Suffolk seat at the July 4 election – looked delighted with the performance, as did the rest of the male-heavy crowd.
When Andre finally got around to Mysterious Girl, he joined his two backing dancers gyrating at the side of the stage closest to a fire exit – which he darted through as soon as the final note of his biggest hit played.
The TikTok night ended there, a far cry from the late-night party thrown by the social media giant at the Labour conference last week.
In Liverpool, a set from Will Young was followed by an all-star lineup of DJs, including Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily Thornberry, and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
There’s a chance the vibes at the Tory night were brought down by concerns over the hosts, which largely played out behind the scenes.
Conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat was rumoured to have banned members of his team from attending, as the shadow security minister wasn’t keen on the optics of celebrating alongside TikTok.
The app is currently facing a ban in the US over fears that user data is vulnerable to exploitation by the Chinese government, which owners ByteDance have repeatedly denied.
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