Is Akshata Murthy using the Ann Romney playbook? Rishi Sunak’s wife made an unexpected appearance on the main stage at Conservative party conference, delivering a speech that she insisted was even a surprise for the Prime Minister. This wasn’t just an introduction to her husband’s speech. It was ten minutes of glowing remarks about Sunak, dating back to when they met as students in California, noting the ‘aspiration’ he had ‘to build for a better country’ at the age of 24.

Murthy’s remarks were the kind that are usually given by a presidential candidate’s partner at the Republican or Democratic Convention, where it is the job of the spouse to highlight the personal, more relatable side of the candidate. It’s a staple in US politics, but almost non-existent in the UK. Murthy’s comments this morning – about her husband’s love of rom coms (‘the cheesier the better’) and about ‘his strength of character, his honesty, his integrity with a firm understanding of right from wrong’ –  are nothing short of an American import.

So who might have influenced this speech? Perhaps a politician who Sunak wanted to bring to Manchester.

As my colleague Katy Balls revealed last month, Republican senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney was ‘top of No. 10’s wish list for speakers’ at party conference. When Sunak travelled to Washington D.C. over the summer, the two politicians met and became fast friends. Romney didn’t make an appearance this week, but Murthy’s speech reflected the kinds of speeches his wife Ann used to make, especially in the run-up to the 2012 election.

Back then, Romney was facing the same kinds of accusations that Sunak is facing now: that he is too rich and out of touch with the public to be able to understand their concerns. Working at the bottom of the rung in the scheduling team at Romney’s campaign headquarters in late summer 2012, I felt there was deep frustration that the man we were campaigning for was being painted in such an ugly, and inaccurate, light. It was decided by the senior advisors that more needed to be done to combat those accusations.

Romney struggled to sing his own praises, especially around charity work, which he didn’t want to use for political gain. But Ann didn’t. She proved to be her husband’s best advocate. The stump speeches Ann was doing on the campaign trail were ramped up to bigger, national appearances. The strategy was thought to be working – but implemented too late.

It’s not hard to imagine Sunak and Murthy might be learning lessons from their new friends across the pond

It’s interesting then, somewhere between six months and a year to the next UK election, that Murthy is inserting herself into the political arena, specifically to emphasise the character of her husband. Her choice of language reflects those similar challenges, trying to correct the record about what is true and ‘not so true’ about her husband.

It does not seem coincidental that Murthy’s speech was added to the conference agenda just days after Sunak’s Sunday interview with Laura Kuenssberg, where he was asked to respond to the ‘word cloud’ of people’s perceptions of him, including the words ‘himself’, ‘money’ and ‘greed.’ The lesson from Romney’s campaign was that such perceptions need to be tackled well before the last leg of the race. It’s not hard to imagine Sunak and Murthy might be learning lessons from their new friends across the pond.