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Theresa May speech - live updates: Prime Minister interrupted by protester handing over fake P45 amid coughing fit Theresa May speech - live updates: PM's speech overshadowed by protester handing over fake P45 and coughing fit
(about 1 hour later)
Welcome to The Independent’s liveblog on the final day of the Conservative party conference. We are bringing you all the latest updates as Theresa May gives one of the most important speeches of her political career – and her first to the party faithful since gambling away the party’s majority at the general election. Welcome to The Independent’s liveblog on the final day of the Conservative party conference.
She hopes to draw a line under weeks of turmoil by telling squabbling Cabinet ministers to stop worrying about their own “job security” and focus on the national interest. It was supposed to be one of the most significant speeches of Theresa May's political career – her first address to the party faithful since gambling away the Conservatives’ majority at the snap election in June. But instead it was overshadowed by a series of unfortunate events. In one instance, a protestor breached security and handed the PM a P45 notice, claiming Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, had asked him to do so. Then she lost her voice on multiple occasions and part of the set - “a country that works for everyone” - fell apart. 
Ms May told her party she will not “hide from a challenge” and demanded that after a lengthy period of soul-searching following the election that ministers “shape up”. While there were some significant policy announcements in the speech – notably on organ donation, mental health, and a new mission to build more homes in Britain – they will undoubtedly be largely absent from any commentary. It is likely to go down as one of the most painfully agonising political speeches to watch in recent history.
In her speech, Ms May said: “Let us do our duty by Britain. Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs.” Simon Brodkin, a comedian who performs under the stage name Lee Nelson, was bundled into a security tent to shield him from the press before being cuffed and escorted out of the Manchester conference centre.
The Prime Minister said: “Beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues – the daily lives of ordinary working people go on. And they must be our focus today. He made no comment to The Independent as security guards rushed him outside but earlier shouted: "Boris made me do it. He's left me in the lurch."
“Not worrying about our job security, but theirs. Not addressing our concerns, but the issues, the problems, the challenges, that concern them. Not focusing on our future, but on the future of their children and their grandchildren – doing everything we can to ensure their tomorrow will be better than our today.” Around the same time he also tweeted: "Hi Boris Johnson, I gave Theresa her P45 just like you asked."
But once again the focus has been on her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson after he prompted outrage on Tuesday evening at a fringe event after claiming a Libyan city could be transformed into the new Dubai once “they cleared the dead bodies away”. The Prime Minister's major speech descended into chaos when Mr Brodkin handed her the form, which gave its 'Reason for termination' as: "Neither strong or stable. We're a bit worried about Jezza." The prankster rose to fame after gate crashing a Fifa press conference and throwing dollar bills at the outgoing president Sepp Blatter.
Mr Johnson’s off-colour comment drew gasps and shocked laughter from the audience at a global trade fringe event at the four-day conference. Several Tory colleagues have since called for his resignation.