2:13PM
Tom Tugendhat: My whole life has been about public service Tom Tugendhat told the Conservative conference: “For me, my entire life has been about public service. You’ve been somebody who asks questions, I’ve been somebody who tries to answer them.
“I’ve spent 25 years serving the country in different ways. I’ve served on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as you know, I’ve been sanctioned personally for standing up to tyrants…
“I’m sanctioned by Russia, I’m sanctioned by China, I’m sanctioned by Iran. I’m working on North Korea, I’m working on Venezuela.
“I was in Cabinet, in charge of our nation’s security… During those two years, we arrested and charged more Russian and Chinese agents than in the previous decade. Conservative leadership matters.”
1:55PM
Bring back Boris, suggests Rees-Mogg Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested Boris Johnson would be better placed than any of the Tory leadership candidates to succeed Rishi Sunak, writes Amy Gibbons.
The former Cabinet minister, who is yet to endorse any of the contenders, told a Popular Conservatism event on the fringes of the Tory conference that he did not think the contest had been “very exciting” so far.
He suggested a little more “pizzazz” was needed to challenge “Sir Ditchwater” in No 10, arguing that someone “more exciting” could reveal the Prime Minister’s “flaws” and “limitations”.
Speaking at a Popular Conservatism event on the fringes of the Tory conference, he said: “We need somebody who is Conservative, who will remain Conservative when elected and won’t just tack to being Conservative for the benefit of this election.
“We need somebody who is charismatic, because you win elections on charisma, as Boris showed us. You need somebody who is intelligent. The problems of government are complex, and you need somebody who can think these things through.
“And I think we have that in all of the candidates to different degrees. To some extent, I wish we had an amalgam of them that would bring all of that together. It just occurs to me there may be somebody living quietly in Oxfordshire, who’s just written a memoir, whose name is something like Cincinnatus.”
1:53PM
Queuedendhat Tory members queue for Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch’s question-and-answer sessions 1:33PM
Rees-Mogg: We should stand down for Reform where they can win Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested the Tories should stand aside in nearly 100 seats where Reform UK are second to Labour, in a “big and generous offer” to Nigel Farage’s party, reports Amy Gibbons.
The former business secretary told a Popular Conservatism fringe event at the Tory conference: “What should we do? Well, let’s for once model ourselves on David Cameron and make a big generous offer…
“What if we were to say at the next election, as we did to the liberal unionists, we will not oppose Reform in those 98 seats? I would certainly be open to that as a real opportunity to Reform to win seats from Labour.”
He added: “I think it would help us, it will help them. And we will not win if we do not reunite.”
He argued that nothing needed to happen “immediately”, but said he would encourage the next leader of the Conservative Party to “start having the occasional dinner with Nigel” to “build a personal relationship” and “some element of trust”, so they could “look to do something at the general election”.
1:33PM
Rees-Mogg: Women on maternity leave should not be able to ‘clock up their holiday’ Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that women should not be able to “clock up their holiday” while they are on maternity leave, writes Amy Gibbons.
Asked what he made of Kemi Badenoch’s comments suggesting state maternity pay was “excessive”, the former Cabinet minister said it is “right” that the cost of the benefit “falls on the state rather than on the employer”.
But he said he thought it was “odd” that women have a right to accrue holiday when they take leave to have children.
Women’s employment rights are protected while on statutory maternity leave, including their rights to pay rises, build up holiday and return to work.
Speaking at a Popular Conservatism fringe event at the Tory conference, Sir Jacob said he would like to see “less state involvement” in maternity pay in general.
“I’m in favour of this being business decisions and less state involvement,” he said. “Do I object to the state setting an absolute minimum? No. Though I do think it’s very odd that people who’ve been on maternity leave for a year clock up their holiday whilst they’re on maternity leave, and I don’t think that is fair on employers.”
1:27PM
This afternoon’s leadership action Tom Tugendhat will be first up in the main hall this afternoon as he takes part in a question-and-answer session before the floor is passed over to Tory members.
Kemi Badenoch will then face a Q&A session of her own and Tory member questions.
1:13PM
Too many Conservatives went ‘woke’ to win votes, says Truss Liz Truss said Sir Keir Starmer’s plans were “bad” and “malevolent” but power had been “outsourced” from Westminster to quangos.
The former prime minister said there had been a “big push on woke” which had filtered out into the Civil Service, the BBC and the corporate sector.
“I think the Equality Act in Britain was a major part of the country becoming more woke, the Gender Recognition Act and then these things have simply been used as a ratchet to make things worse.
“But there’s been a cultural battle that Conservatives have failed to stand up to. In fact many Conservatives have simply gone along with it because they thought it was electorally advantageous to be seen as progressive.
“What we’ve seen is a shift from the establishment being fuddy-duddy conservatives to the establishment being the liberal Left.”
1:07PM
Liz Truss: I enjoy the fight and I’ll win it Asked what motivated her, Liz Truss said: “It’s the fight. I enjoy the fight, I believe there is a battle now to save not just Britain, but western civilisation.
“I believe there is a real threat… I think the sort of neo-Marxist orthodoxies of wokery or sort of human rights culture or extreme net zero alarm, I think those have been prevalent.
Liz Truss made her sole appearance of Conservative Party Conference 2024 at a fringe event Justin Tallis “So that’s what motivates me, winning that fight. I’ll win it and I’ll fight it in whatever way I can.”
1:04PM
Trump winning would really cheer me up, says Truss Liz Truss said victory for Donald Trump would “really cheer me up”.
“He made the economy successful and that is what Biden has been riding off, despite some of his poorer economic policies.
“Trump made deals with the likes of Japan, we could have done a deal with Trump, we could have done a trade deal. It was our reticence that stopped that happening, our fear of bad PR that stopped that from happening.
“But Trump would have done a deal with the United Kingdom and I hope will do a deal with the United Kingdom.”
1:01PM
Liz Truss: Kemi is right that not all cultures are equal Liz Truss agreed with Kemi Badenoch that not all cultures are equal.
“I think she meant that this country is based on Judeo-Christian values, and that is what should prevail.”
Ms Truss said she would be “absolutely happy” with Robert Jenrick’s suggestion that the Star of David should be on show at entry points in the UK.
On Tom Tugendhat’s concerns around children using iPhones, she said: “I do think there is a case for saying that whilst adults should be able to have full control of their own lives, that children do need to be protected. We don’t let children go into films of a particular nature if they’re under 18 so I think there is a case for the restriction of children, I do.”
12:57PM
Liz Truss: None of the Tory leadership candidates get how bad things are Liz Truss was asked which Tory leadership hopeful came closest to her analysis.
She replied: “So far, I haven’t really seen any of the candidates acknowledge how bad things are in the country as a whole and frankly for the Conservative Party.
“So I think there’s been a bit of Panglossian, all we need to do is unite, all we need to do is show competence and we will be ushered back into office.
“They have to explain what went wrong, why things are so bad for the Conservatives and what they’re actually going to do. Now take energy prices. Now I haven’t heard anybody advocating for fracking, I haven’t heard a serious discussion about oil and gas or coal.
“There has been discussion about the ECHR, but what about the Human Rights Act? What about the Equality Act?”
12:54PM
Truss: I would have done better than Sunak at the election Asked if a Tory Party led by her would have done better than how the party fared under Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss said: “Yes, I do.
“Because when I was in No 10, Reform was polling at three per cent. By the time we got to the election, I mean they got 18 per cent because we promised change that we didn’t deliver.
“Now, of course without the support of the parliamentary party it was very, very difficult for me to get my changes through. And if you have people in the parliamentary party saying ‘this is Liz Truss’s fault this has happened’… it is very difficult for me to deliver that change.
Jacob King “But certainly if the mini-Budget had been allowed to succeed, we’d had lower corporation tax bringing more companies into this country, we’d have duty-free shoppers coming to London rather than being diverted to Paris or Milan. We’d have got on with fracking.”
Asked if she could have won, Ms Truss replied: “I thought in 2022 that it was a very tall order to win. I think our best chance of winning would have been to have kept Boris. I think it was a very stupid move of some of my colleagues to undermine Boris and they still haven’t admitted that. And that’s another bit of the analysis that needs to be done.
“But I think the second-best option was pursuing the economic policies that would have showed what we could have delivered.”
12:51PM
Liz Truss: Rise of Reform cost me my seat “I lost my seat largely due to Reform. So Reform took a lot of my vote in South West Norfolk and I was frankly in quite a difficult position because I was running under a very orthodox Conservative Party while being an unorthodox Conservative myself.
“That’s what happened to us in many similar seats. Because Reform did so well, Conservatives lost and Labour got in. I don’t believe the people of South West Norfolk actually consciously wanted a Labour MP…
“They didn’t vote Labour because they were enthusiastic about the Labour Party, they voted Labour because they were fed up that we hadn’t delivered.”
12:48PM
Truss: The Tories can no longer be the party of the establishment Liz Truss, the former prime minister, said the new divide in British politics was “between the establishment and people who want things to really change about our country”.
“And they don’t just want a change of the political figures in No 10 and the Cabinet, they want a change in the senior figures in the bureaucracy who have presided over our country’s decline. That is the change they want to see.
“And I think fundamentally in the Conservative Party, we’re still divided about that. There are still people who think a bit of tinkering here, a bit of change in narrative here, a bit of demonstrating competence here will get us back into power. If people want to vote for the establishment, they have Rachel Reeves, a former Bank of England employee which Theresa May is also a former Bank of England employee.
“They have Keir Starmer, a former chief of prosecutions and human rights lawyer… If people want to vote for the establishment, they’re there already. We are no longer the party of the establishment.”
12:45PM
Liz Truss: My Tory critics are fundamentally wrong Liz Truss was asked about Theresa May’s claim that her mini-Budget destroyed the Tories’ reputation for economic competence.
“I don’t know what to say about the 2017 election and our policies on social care. I’m not going to indulge in a slanging match with Theresa May.
“But what happened was successive Conservative governments went along with the economic orthodoxy, loose monetary policy, giving control to the Bank of England, accepting the judgments of the OBR.
“They essentially outsourced economic policy so it wasn’t being decided by the Chancellor… I explicitly, back in 2022, had a mandate to take that on. What I found was those people and institutions were very powerful, they sought to undermine me and at the same time people in the Conservative Party wanted to undermine me. But they are fundamentally wrong.”
12:43PM
Liz Truss: It’s ‘pathetic’ to blame me for economic crisis Liz Truss accused Rachel Reeves of “going along with the Treasury orthdoxy, going along with the OBR orthodoxy, going along with the Bank of England orthodoxy”.
The former prime minister said it was “economic illiteracy” to blame her mini-Budget for the state of the economy, instead blaming the Bank of England’s “failures”.
“There was a real lack of interest amongst policymakers, politicians and the media in reporting what actually happened in 2022. I think that’s bad for the country and I think it’s fundamentally dishonest.
“So you’ve got the Bank of England saying the economic crisis was caused by LDIs, which are a particular time of leveraged investment, and the Labour Party and even elements of the Conservative Party were saying it was my fault.
“How on earth can we move forward as a country if people can’t actually talk about the facts but instead throw insults around? I just think it’s pathetic.”
12:36PM
Liz Truss: We failed to take on the Blairite-Brownite consensus Liz Truss agreed things would get worse in Britain.
“This makes me very, very sad because I hate to see our country in the situation it’s in. But only today we’ve seen our last coal fire power plant close, we’ve seen the last steel plant that produces from scratch close, we’ve seen oil refineries close.
“And you can see that with the highest energy costs in the world that Britain is on a very, very difficult path. And yes, Labour are accelerating those policies, but I don’t think we can say that all of the problems Britain has now is to do with the terrible government of the Labour party.
“Now, yes, they’re making it worse, yes, they’re talking the country down, yes, they don’t have any of the right solutions, yes, their analysis is totally flawed. But a lot of the problems we’re facing now are a result of us failing to turn things round. We failed to take on the Blairite-Brownite statist orthodoxy and the consequence is first of all we got the worst election for the Conservatives since 1834, but secondly the country is moving in the wrong direction. And I think we have to acknowledge that.”
12:34PM
Liz Truss: Britain is already a socialist country The Telegraph Tim Stanley is talking to Liz Truss’s at Conservative Party Conference.
Asked if Britain was on the road to socialism, Ms Truss said: “I think we’re already in socialism. We are already a socialist country. The Government is spending 45 per cent of GDP, we have huge swathes of the economy controlled by regulation and the bureaucracy, and we have a Government who is saying more of that, we need more taxes, we need bigger government, we need more regulation, we need GB Energy, we need the railways controlled by the state.
“So I think we are well on the way. And ironically although Britain voted to leave the European Union, Britain has become more of a European-style economy and less of a capitalist economy over the past 14 years.”
On whether the changes began under the Conservatives, Ms Truss replied: “Absolutely. We had record taxes under the Conservatives, we had state spending 45 per cent which was only equalled in one year in the 1970s. And if we look at debt being more than 100 per cent of GDP, the cause of that was the Conservative government following on from the Labour government.”
12:27PM
There she goes Liz Truss arriving at the Conservative Party Conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham Jacob King 12:15PM
Sir John Redwood and Sir Bill Cash back Jenrick Robert Jenrick’s campaign to become the next Tory leader has been backed by two of the party’s most senior eurosceptics, reports Nick Gutteridge.
Sir John Redwood and Sir Bill Cash threw their weight behind the former immigration minister at a Tory conference fringe event held by the European Research Group.
Sir John, a former head of the No 10 policy unity under Margaret Thatcher, said Mr Jenrick could win back voters who defected to Reform because of high immigration.
He said that he was “the only one of the four [candidates] that detached himself from the government” by resigning over the lack of border controls.
Sir Bill, who was chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, added that Mr Jenrick’s resignation had shown he had the principles to lead the party.
12:14PM
Gove declines to back Trump Michael Gove has not endorsed a second Donald Trump presidency, writes Jacob Freedland.
Asked at an event organised by Onward if he would support a second term for Mr Trump, the former levelling up minister said: “I’m a George Bush type of Republican.”
In August, Robert Jenrick said he would vote for Mr Trump if he were an American.
11:51AM
Gove: I won’t endorse anyone – I’d only blight their prospects Michael Gove has said he will not endorse a candidate in the Conservative leadership race, writes Genevieve Holl-Allen.
The former cabinet minister, who will take up the editorship of the Spectator, said his support would be “a blight on their prospects”.
Michael Gove will be the new editor of the Spectator magazine from next month Asked whether he would back a candidate, he told a fringe event: “I won’t endorse a candidate because my endorsement would be a blight on their prospects.
“So I don’t want to burden any of them.”
11:40AM
Robert Jenrick: Churchill would turn in his grave over the ECHR Sir Winston Churchill would be “turning in his grave” if he knew how his European convention on human rights (ECHR) had been twisted to protect terrorists, murderers, rapists and paedophiles, Robert Jenrick said.
Speaking at a rally at the Tory conference in Birmingham, the former immigration minister and contender for the party leadership repeated his pledge to take the UK out of the ECHR if he was elected Prime Minister “as soon as possible.”
He said the ECHR which was created by Churchill and European partners in the aftermath of the Second World War, the horrors of the Holocaust and the tyranny of Stalin had been a “noble document.”
But it had been “twisted and bent out of all shape by activist judges, by charities and NGOs who sought to misuse it from the 1970s onwards,” said Mr Jenrick.
He said the ECHR had made it impossible for the UK to “deport terrorists who are here walking our streets, to remove dangerous foreign criminals like rapists and murderers and paedophiles who we need to get out of our country to protect the public.”
He cited a case, first revealed by The Telegraph, of a Ugandan murderer who clubbed a man to death in the back of a London ambulance but who will not be deported in order to protect his mental health.
Lawyers for the murderer – who has also been granted anonymity – successfully argued that it would be “inhumane” under the ECHR because Uganda has not got the required facilities to treat his mental ill health.
“That is absurd, but is also shameful,” said Mr Jenrick. “I am not prepared to put our citizens at risk any longer. And then there are dozens of terrorists in our prisons on our streets because of our continued membership of the ECHR.”
11:39AM
Lord Frost: Tories could ‘disappear’ if they don’t move to the Right Lord Frost has warned that the Tory party could “easily just disappear” if it does not move to the Right and win back voters from Reform, writes Nick Gutteridge.
The former chief Brexit negotiator said the party “is beginning to break down” across the country as traditional supporters abandon it.
He told the Conservative conference that many loyal voters had broken their “psychological loyalty” at the last election by voting for Reform.
Speaking at a Popular Conservatives fringe event, he said: “A lot of members clearly went to Reform or just gave up being involved in the party.
“The reason I worry is it seems to me for the first time in a very, very long time the party in the country is beginning to break down and some of the instinctual loyalties are beginning to break down.
“If we create conditions for more of that to happen the party could easily just disappear. It doesn’t have a right to exist, it’s got to stand for something and we’ve come very close to not standing for anything.”
11:38AM
Badenoch all smiles on day two Kemi Badenoch seen on the second day of the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham Geoff Pugh 11:28AM
I’m not backing anyone just yet, says Brady Sir Graham Brady declined to back anyone at this point of the Conservative leadership contest.
He told The Daily T: “I think it’s very difficult to say. I’m not going to back anybody certainly until we’re down to the two, because we’ve still got another stage of the parliamentary process.
“I take considerable comfort from the fact even though there are only 121 Conservative MPs, I think we have four pretty incredible candidates at this point.
“The last time there were votes I voted twice for Kemi to be leader. I think she’s a very interesting candidate, I didn’t think she was ready at this point. This is going to be obviously a period of four or five years of opposition… But I’m a big fan of all four of them and I will see who impresses over the contest.”
11:23AM
Public must realise we need a united Right, Sir Graham Brady Sir Graham Brady told The Daily T podcast: “My view on that is very simple. In our electoral arrangements, in our constitutional arrangements, only a broad church, centre-Right party can keep the socialists out of government.
“And the voting public has got to take that on board and respond accordingly.
“I think after four or five years of a very painful Labour government, it’s going to be about what’s the most effective way of bringing it back and keeping the socialists out of power.”
11:22AM
Brady: We could have kept more seats with a later election Sir Graham Brady said the Tories may have held more seats had Rishi Sunak called the election later.
“There are an awful lot of seats where a pretty small shift would have made the difference,” he told The Daily T’s Kamal Ahmed and Gordon Rayner.
“It’s painful to look at results where you think the tiniest thing might have made a difference.”
11:19AM
Graham Brady: We failed to take a risk Sir Graham Brady said the Conservatives had failed to “take a risk” and “excite the Conservative vote”.
“They started reducing taxes with the National Insurance cuts, it wasn’t the thing that was really getting the blood racing in Conservatives around the country, it needed to be something else, probably a more solid and demonstrable offer of the direction that we were going to move in, away from the historically high rates of taxation and spending over many, many years.”
Asked if any Tory leader could have pulled back from Liz Truss, Sir Graham replied: “It was always going to be a very big ask. I thought Rishi knew that. I think one of the remarkable things about him for most of his time as prime minister was he stayed incredibly positive.
“However bleak the news was, however bad the polls were, he always had a spring in his step. But he must have known how hard it was going to be.”
11:03AM
When are the leadership hopefuls speaking? 10:59AM
Watch live: The Daily T with Sir Graham Brady Sir Graham Brady, the former chairman of the 1922 Committee, is in conversation with The Telegraph’s The Daily T podcast:
10:55AM
Have your say: Should Britain remain in or leave the ECHR? 10:48AM
Tom Tugendhat pledges to stop Tory HQ imposing election candidates Conservative HQ will never again impose one-person shortlists for MP candidates, Tom Tugendhat has pledged.
The Tory leadership candidate said that constituency associations should be able to put at least one local candidate on their shortlists.
Mr Tugendhat also accused the party hierarchy of being “Stalinist” in its approach to members, asking for donations and not sufficiently taking their views into account.
Genevieve Holl-Allen has the story
10:34AM
What’s happening at Tory conference today Main Hall
9:30 In conversation with Jeremy Hunt9:50 Member debate: ImmigrationMember debate: Free speechMember debate: Building homesMember debate: Growing the economy14:00 In conversation with Tom Tugendhat + Q&ATHEN In conversation with Kemi Badenoch + Q&AFringe Events
10:45 In conversation with Michael Gove11:00 The Daily T live with Graham Brady12:00 James Cleverly at the Conservative Policy Forum Hustings12:30 Liz Truss in conversation with Tim Stanley14:00 PopConversation with Robert Jenrick15:00 Onward in conversation with James Cleverly20:30 The social justice hustings with all four leadership candidates 10:22AM
Pictured: Robert Jenrick holds rally outside conference Christopher Furlong 9:55AM
We can’t assume voters will automatically come back, says Hunt “The trap to fall into, and it is a trap, is to think that as people get fed up with the Labour Government, and judging by the last 12 weeks that’s starting to hapen far more quickly than people were expecting, is to assume that people were automatically come back to us.
“We were trounced at the election. We got ourselves into a position where people looked at the problems the country faced, the problems in the NHS, the cost of living crisis, immigration, and they began to think we were part of the problem, not part of the solution.
“That is very uncomfortable. I know, everyone in the room knows, we faced the most enormous global challenges… We took tough and difficult decisions to get the country back on track. But it doesn’t work just to tell that to the electorate, we tried that at the election.
“We now have to earn their trust and show we have listened… If we follow a narrow political strategy, people will think we’re thinking about ourselves rather than about the country.”
9:52AM
Jeremy Hunt: We can’t just jump on ‘easy bandwagons’ Jeremy Hunt said the Tories “have to recognise we were beaten fair and square in the election” and “have to think like an opposition”.
“All I would say is when you think like an opposition, the reason that the electorate change their mind and decide having thrown you out they want to trust you again is if they can see that you are advocating proper solutions and not always the easy solutions.
“So I think it’s very important that as we embark on this new chapter that we don’t always jump on the easiest bandwagons, because the electorate are watching quickly.
“If there is a principled case to make that the decisions Labour are making will damage our economy then of course we should make that case… I think that sadly every Labour government in history has left with unemployment higher than when they came in. I think if they do what Angela Rayner wants, that will happen again with this government.”
9:47AM
Jeremy Hunt: I worry Labour won’t touch welfare reform Jeremy Hunt told Tory conference: “The difficult thing that we need to reform, which is also very good for the economy and very good for society, is to tackle the problems that we have in our welfare state.
“And in particular the fact that we are signing off 80,000 people a year who we say are not just too ill to work, they’re too ill even to consider looking for work, so they are automatically signed off…
“My worry about the last 12 weeks is that Labour have got themselves so badly burnt with the mess they’ve got into over winter fuel allowance is that welfare reform will now become untouchable for them.
“If they worried about a battle with the Labour Party on benefits paid to pensioners, including wealthier pensioners, you can imagine what a challenge it would be to cut the bill for working age, disabled people, which is due to increase by £25 billion a year over the next five years. It’s a huge, huge increase.
“But the argument the Conservatives are making is if you do have mental health issues, one of the worst possible things is to be signed off, having to look for work, because that means your isolation is likely to increase, your mental health problems are likely to get worse.”
9:37AM
Jeremy Hunt: Labour shying away from difficult decisions Jeremy Hunt said Labour was shying away from difficult decisions.
“The real concern I have is since July 5 when Labour came into office, they have talked about difficult decisions. Actually, they have not taken those difficult decisions, they’ve spent all the airtime attacking their predecessors.
“Now we lost that election, we accept that we’ve got a lot of learning to do, we’ve got a long journey to go on. But governing is about doing difficult things and making the arguments for those things.
“And about that, we have heard nothing. And when it comes to the big decisions we need to secure our economic growth for the future, I think people are beginning to wonder whether Labour has a plan at all because we have had absolutely nothing in the 12 weeks when they’ve been in office.”
9:35AM
Hunt: Labour must not believe its own propaganda Asked if he agreed with Labour that things would get worse, Jeremy Hunt said: “They will get worse if Labour makes catastrophic mistakes in the Budget and hikes up tax in a way that destroys growth.
“And I think one of the biggest lies we’ve had since Labour came to office is this nonsense about having the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War.
“I note not a single independent economist has been prepared to come forward and back up Rachel Reeves in that claim. And the reason is very straightforward. I mean inflation, two per cent, jobs, a succession of Conservative governments that created 800 jobs for every single day that they were in office.
“And growth, it wasn’t just the fastest growth in the G7 when Labour took over, but the International Monetary Fund said over the next six years we are projected to grow faster than France, Italy, Germany or Japan. That is a legacy I would have died to have when I became chancellor.
“I think the economy has got very solid foundations. My worry is that Labour believes its own propaganda and starts taking a whole series of decisions, particularly on things like capital gains tax, which have a massive impact in deterring investment in the economy which we really need.”
9:25AM
Coming up Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, is set to speak in the main hall in about five minutes as part of an ‘in conversation with…’ event.
Mr Hunt was a key figure in Rishi Sunak’s administration and at the heart of his government’s efforts to drive down inflation.
8:50AM
Sir John Curtice’s thoughts on Starmer’s struggles This from the polling guru just now on Times Radio:
Keir Starmer has never been a popular politician. He wasn’t popular in the run up to the election. He got a bit of a boost having won the election, his ratings went up, surprise, surprise, but they’ve gone down pretty quickly… This is simply the re-emergence of a problem that was firstly clear.
What are the problems? Well I would pick out two. One is that he is not very good at setting a narrative, frankly he shares that weakness with Rishi Sunak. And the question is whether any of the four candidates for this party can come with a narrative.
The second is that his political antennae are weak. He’s not very good at spotting problems before they hit him. We saw that when he admitted Natalie Elphicke to the parliamentary Labour party, the former Conservative MP for Dover and Deal.
And immediately the question that was always going to be asked was ‘what about Diane Abbott?’ and it took them a long time to realise they needed to deal with Diane Abbott’s suspension.
8:43AM
John Curtice: Two-party system may have ‘died a death’ The two-party system may have “effectively died a death” at the general election, Professor Sir John Curtice said.
“The first thing about the 2024 election is that the big parties could no longer assume that the contest is simply between them,” the political professor told Times Radio.
“It’s perfectly obvious, in the case of the Conservative example, that while yes, they need to get back around the one in eight people who switched to Labour from them, they also need to get back the roughly one in four who switched to Reform.
“All parties now are going to have realise that 2024 may be the election in which the two-party system effectively died a death.”
8:42AM
Curtice: Tories face ‘very, very considerable’ challenge The scale of the challenge facing the Conservative party is “very, very considerable”, Britain’s foremost polling guru has warned.
Professor Sir John Curtice told Times Radio the lack of name recognition of the four remaining Tory leadership hopefuls may make it harder for the party to rebuild.
“The party is being asked to choose between four candidates and none of whom is particularly well known by the wider public, indeed not even particularly well known by the diminishing number of people who actually voted Conservative in July.”
8:24AM
Shapps: I was right to warn of ‘super-majority’ Grant Shapps defended his warnings of Labour winning a “super-majority” during the general election campaign.
The former defence secretary was the first then-cabinet minister to break ranks and suggest it was inevitable that Sir Keir Starmer would win big at the ballot box.
Mr Shapps told Times Radio: “I just think, in politics, rather than… I just try to answer the question. If you are so obviously in a position where things aren’t going to plan, then to pretend ‘no, no, no, don’t worry’…
“It’s no great mystery what I was warning of. I was warning of what happened in the end, which was a very, very large unchallenged Labour majority, and that’s what this enormous majority gives them.”
Mr Shapps added: “Just answering the questions sometimes I think is the best policy”.
8:16AM
Grant Shapps: Tory disunity cost us dear at election Grant Shapps was asked about the rise of Reform UK at July’s general election.
“People were saying, look, I’m not voting for them their policies, I’m voting for them because you guys just haven’t got your act together,” he told Times Radio.
“Or, as I said in my concession speech – door after door, people said you guys can’t agree with each other and we can’t agree to vote for you.”
Mr Shapps added: “It was obviously incredibly frustrating, but also completely true. And the first rule of politics in my view, of public life, is if you want to represent people, be competent, that is the number one rule.
“And if the Government itself or the party isn’t agreeing with each other, then it can’t do that.”
8:11AM
Shapps: I’m launching Conservatives Together Grant Shapps, a former Conservative MP who held multiple cabinet posts in the last government, said he felt “a bit of everything” now he was out of office.
“Kind of being out of those roles is a little bit demob happy – you get on with your life, you don’t have to get up every single day and follow a particular structure,” Mr Shapps told Times Radio.
“But on the other hand, the Conservative Party just went up to a catastrophic defeat… I’m a Conservative through and through.
“I just think to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, you’ve got to get your act together quickly, got to learn your lessons. And that’s why I’m at this conference launching Conservatives Together.”
Mr Shapps said he had done research showing that if one per cent of registered voters who did not vote backed the Tories there would be a hung parliament, and if two per cent broke for the Tories they would have won the election.
7:51AM
Badenoch and Jenrick’s ‘difficult day’ Both Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick had a “difficult day” yesterday, a leading polling expert and Conservative peer said.
Lord Hayward told Times Radio: “Kemi had a difficult day yesterday, I think Robert Jenrick had a difficult day yesterday with an interview on Sky where Trevor Phillips put questions to him about receiving donations from a tax haven and he couldn’t explain it.
“So I think there are two that definitely had a difficult day yesterday. I think in the case of Tom and James, they probably had better days, because they’re not the subject of conversation…
Tom Tugendhat on an actual soap box with Tom Tugend-box written on it. Part of the crowd is his adoring fans, the rest are people who couldn’t get through because it blocked the throroughfare from the entrance pic.twitter.com/xJGwS8fFC3
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) September 29, 2024 “But also, and these are impressionistic, looking around the conference centre, I happened to pass one of Tom’s meetings and he actually had to go outside and stand on the soapbox to address the people who couldn’t get in.
“And James, I understand it’s just the luck of the draw, there is no question where his stand is is the best situated.”
7:45AM
Tory peer: There is a sense of relief at this year’s conference There is a “sense of relief” at this year’s Tory conference after their election defeat and Labour’s difficult start in government, Lord Hayward has said.
The Tory peer and polling expert told Times Radio: “I think [there is] a sense of relief, because there has been the disaster in terms of the election.
“But there’s been surprise in that, to be honest, the first few weeks of the Labor Party’s government has been a disaster for them.
“The plunging opinion poll ratings of Keir Starmer, rows over freebies, cronyism and all those sorts of things.
“And the net result is that they’re actually picking up council by-election seats in all sorts of places, which a few weeks ago they wouldn’t have done.”
7:38AM
‘No change’ to Tory leadership timetable, says chairman The interim Conservative chairman has said there will be “no change” to the timetable of the Tory leadership contest.
The race to replace Rishi Sunak will run until Nov 2, when the winner of a head-to-head members’ poll between the final two candidates will be announced.
Richard Fuller told Times Radio: “We had this debate some months ago. We had a very long discussion between the voluntary party and the 1922 Committee.
Richard Fuller addressing the media as part of his morning broadcast round on Monday Ioannis Alexopoulos “The 1922 Committee wanted a longer campaign, they wanted to have four candidates here at conference. And the logistics of that mean that when we whittle it down two, and it goes to the members, there’s a period of time.
“It’s my job to make sure that members have enough time to get their ballot papers and return that ballot papers, and that’s why we ended up at the time frame again.”
7:29AM
Tories will get behind new leader, interim chairman insists The Tory Party will “get behind” its new leader, the interim party chairman has insisted despite the start of party conference being marred by in-fighting.
“There’s a commonality of understanding that whichever person is selected to be leader, all the rest of the party want to get behind that leader.
“One of the pieces of feedback I received, not only from voters but also from party members subsequent to the election is that the last parliamentary party looked divided.
“It looked like we were just focusing on what’s all about me, not on what we need to do to deliver for the public.
“And so all the candidates believe that whoever is selected we’re going to get behind as part of the united team to hold this Labour government to account for the choices it’s making, such as cancelling winter fuel payments for pensioners.”
7:14AM
Tory party will die if it doesn’t plan to leave ECHR, Jenrick to claim Robert Jenrick will claim that the Conservative Party will “die” unless it proposes pulling Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), writes Ben Riley-Smith.
In a speech at a rally at the Tory conference today, Mr Jenrick, the front-runner in the party’s leadership race, will further harden his rhetoric on immigration.
Rasid Necati Aslim He will warn that Nigel Farage’s Reform party will “grow and grow and condemn us to obscurity” unless the Tories somehow regain trust on bringing down numbers.
The warning is Mr Jenrick’s latest attempt to put the UK’s membership of the ECHR at the centre of the leadership contest.
Read the full story here
7:10AM
The Badenoch row that dominated day one Tory leadership rivals turned on Kemi Badenoch yesterday after she suggested maternity pay was “excessive”.
Speaking during a morning media round in Birmingham, Mrs Badenoch said regulations around the benefit have “gone too far” and were tying business in too much red tape.
She said families needed to take more “personal responsibility” over their finances when they have children and suggested working people were paying too much in tax to fund statutory maternity pay.
The remarks were quickly rejected by other contenders, with Tom Tugendhat saying he wanted to see “strong maternity and paternity pay”.
Daniel Martin has the full story here
7:06AM
Dream on, Badenoch tells Cleverly Kemi Badenoch told James Cleverly to “dream on” after the shadow home secretary claimed he was the “best” of the four remaining Tory leadership candidates.
At a reception on Sunday night, Mr Cleverly declared “I would be the best leader of the party”, saying he had the most media experience and had held two great offices of state.
Mrs Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, began her speech by saying: “Nice speeches, boys, but I think you all know I’m the one everyone’s been waiting for.”
She added: “We are going to get Angela Rayner, we’re going to get Rachel Reeves and we’re going to get Keir Starmer and to do that we need someone who’s going to cut through, somebody who is going to stand up to them and also face down Farage.
“Somebody who will resonate with the public. James thinks he’s the best – dream on, James. If you want change, vote for renewal, vote for Kemi.”
7:05AM
Good morning Dominic Penna, The Telegraph’s Political Correspondent, guiding you through the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.