PM wins over sympathy vote says Nigel Hastilow

She began by constantly having to clear her throat and take sips of water but it got worse and worse. Half way through, it seemed as if she couldn’t go on.

Before that, though, an alleged comedian known as Lee Nelson, real name Simon Brodkin, managed to interrupt her to hand over a P45 then tell Boris Johnson he’d created the vacancy for him.

The man was hustled out of the Manchester conference centre but he had successfully hi-jacked the Prime Minister’s big moment, presumably to promote his national tour (he appears in Wolverhampton on November 3. I will not be buying a ticket).

Mrs May managed to overcome this diversion, declaring the only person she would give a P45 to was Jeremy Corbyn, though how the Tories let this man get close to the Prime Minister is a worrying question.

Yet the stunt was not the most disastrous part of Mrs May’s performance.

Her cough did not let up. She coughed, she spluttered, she cleared her throat, she took a sweet from Chancellor Philip Hammond and gulped down glasses of water.

It was so bad the audience kept giving her standing ovations, not because of some new policy initiative or as a result of some sweeping assertion of British values but because they were buying her time. They were desperate for her to recover her voice and plough on.

There was concern on the faces of Cabinet ministers as the embarrassment grew. Home Secretary Amber Rudd looked like the headmistress when the head girl fluffs her Speech Day address.

Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, seemed merely rueful. You could imagine her thinking: ‘Poor Theresa.’ That, certainly, seemed to be the reaction of the audience as a whole. Anxiety was clear on every face.

They were on the edge of their seats but not with excitement or anticipation. They were just worried about whether she could make it to the end and wondering whether somebody else, probably Boris Johnson, would have to take over.

In the end, Mrs May recovered just enough to struggle on. The cough became less prominent, the embarrassment started to ease.

And she seemed determined to read the whole thing rather than, perhaps, cut short the speech, get to the finale and the end and escape as quickly as possible.

Poor Mrs May. She had so much to do to: several important announcements to make; her authority over her Cabinet to reassert; her right to lead the country to emphasise.

In the event, anyone who watched this most memorable of conference speeches will have just felt sorry for her.

There was substance to her remarks – from apologising for the election debacle to pledging another £2 billion for social housing – but it was all lost in the excruciating agony of wondering whether she would complete the speech.

As a re-launch of the Conservative Government, this had all the hallmarks of a disaster. It is possible, however, that this speech is a metaphor for Theresa May’s entire career as Prime Minister.

She began confidently. She sounded relaxed and confident. Then came the comedian’s stunt and she dealt with it well enough.

The next phase was the worst, though – negotiating her way through the substance of her address, while at the same time enduring an irritant which became more and more insufferable.

Mrs May ploughed on, doing her best. It was admirable given that the eyes of the party, the TV cameras, the news bulletins, the cynical hacks and the rest of the country were upon her. Afterwards she looked much as she did when she learned she had not won outright victory at the General Election – rueful, upset, in need of husband Philip’s moral support.

The standing ovation at the end was fairly perfunctory and Mrs May disappeared into the background as quickly as she decently could. This was no triumphant return to form, it was an endurance test for the Prime Minister and her audience.

She passed that test, however, and if we are charitable we might think that her stoicism and determination to overcome difficulty are in themselves qualities the country needs as it takes on the European Union over Brexit.

The speech was designed to give the Government renewed vigour and purpose but instead it was a physical demonstration of the way Mrs May’s whole administration seems to be ailing.

It certainly won’t have silenced those who think her days in power are numbered nor will it lessen the Labour Party’s belief there will be an early General Election.

Strangely, though, Mrs May’s willingness to see it out in the face of so much adversity could do her more good than harm. No ‘Maybot’ she, just an ordinary woman doing her best. It could work. At least she gets the sympathy vote.