ALTHOUGH Boris Johnson's Tory conference experience so far has mainly consisted of being stopped from drinking out of a disposable cup by panicked staffers and threatening to block the First Minister from attending a major Scottish event, the Prime Minister does actually have a key duty to carry out as party leader on the event's final day.
The former London mayor is due to make his first speech as Conservative leader at about 11.30am this morning.
This particular speech has been described as "massive" by the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg, because in it he will make his bid to the EU for the UK's post-Brexit plans.
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As of now very few officials and ministers know what the plan entails. Once the speech has been given, we're expecting to see some response from the EU which will probably indicate whether or not it's likely the UK will be able to secure a deal with the bloc before the October 31 deadline.
The UK Government has insisted it wants to secure a deal with the EU, but this has been widely questioned by opposition figures. Scotland's Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell recently said: "I am extremely alarmed that, so close to the UK exiting the EU on October 31, we did not hear any convincing evidence that serious negotiations are taking place."
As well as Brexit-related chat, the PM will probably use the opportunity to set out some of the "domestic agenda" he's so desperate to tell us about - most of which has been criticised by cross-party figures, who've suggested many of the funding announcements are not what they appear to be.
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So, in summary, this is a pretty big deal in terms of where Brexit goes from here. We'll be live blogging the speech, so keep an eye out for that on our website from a little before 11.30am.
*An earlier version of this article said the speech would begin at 10am. It appears the speech will now start at 11.30.
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