The MPs, ambitious activists and corporate lobbyists who normally pack out the Conservative Party’s annual conference had stayed away, leaving the vast exhibition hall in Manchester half-empty. But one stall-holder, Hugh Beattie, an oil painter in tweeds selling portraits of Tory leaders, was on chipper form. Nestled between Kemi Badenoch, the current Tory leader, and Margaret Thatcher, a more successful predecessor, was a rendering—in Italian futurist style—of Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, wielding a chainsaw. It was a hit with delegates, says Mr Beattie, who also sold packs of Milei postcards.