1:10PM
Lord Alli criticised ‘entitled’ MPs helping themselves to freebies after expenses scandal The Labour peer at the centre of Sir Keir Starmer’s donations row previously criticised “entitled” MPs who took freebies following the Westminster expenses scandal.
Lord Alli gave Sir Keir £32,000 to pay for clothing, as well as thousands of pounds for designer clothing for his wife Victoria, and work clothing to Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister. He also lent the Prime Minister his £18 million Covent Garden penthouse.
But speaking to the Financial Times in 2011, Lord Alli criticised MPs who took handouts and suggested people who were involved in the riots that swept across the UK that year felt able to steal from shops because they believed politicians were “on the take”.
Read the full story here
1:00PM
Sealed with a kiss James Cleverly and Susie, his wife, share a smooch at the Conservative Party Conference Geoff Pugh 12:33PM
Statutory maternity pay is ‘excessive’, suggests Badenoch Kemi Badenoch was asked if Britain had the right level of maternity pay.
She told Times Radio: “Maternity pay varies depending on who you work for, but where it is statutory maternity pay, it is a function of tax. Tax comes from people who are working.
“We’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive. Businesses are closing, businesses are not starting in the UK, because they say the burden of regulation is too high.”
Asked “so maternity pay is excessive?”, Mrs Badenoch continued: “I think it’s gone too far the other way in terms of general business regulation. We need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions.
“The exact amount of maternity pay in my view is neither here nor there. We need to make sure people have more freedom to make their individual decisions… We need to have more personal responsibility. There wasn’t any maternity pay and women were having more babies.”
12:22PM
Badenoch: Government is getting too involved in everything Asked if the Government could or should do more to help people with building a family, Kemi Badenoch told Times Radio: “I think one of the problems we have right now is that there is too much government getting involved if everything…
“Asking the government to do more is not the answer… There is too much government. Every time there is an issue or someone has a question, the answer cannot be, well let’s help the government help people to have babies, or let the government create a football regulator, or let the government come in and ban smoking in gardens.
“It’s just excessive. Government is not good at doing this stuff. Government needs to focus on the few things it does well, defence, domestic security and so on, and leave all of this stuff to individuals.”
11:58AM
The scene from conference here in Birmingham 11:54AM
Sunak: All four of my would-be replacements are ‘good Conservatives’ Rishi Sunak praised all four of the Conservative leadership candidates hoping to succeed him.
In an op-ed for the House magazine, Mr Sunak said: “I have sat round the Cabinet table with all four candidates and know that they are good Conservatives, determined to stand up for our values.
“I know that they will take this chance to tell our members where they want to take our party and our country.”
Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty arriving at Tory conference yesterday Geoff Pugh Mr Sunak said the Tories “need to learn the lessons of our defeat” and conceded “we did not get everything right” while in power.
However, he added: “We should not forget what we have achieved since 2010. The last Labour government left us a note saying there is no money left. We left behind the fastest growing economy in the G7, inflation under control, interest rates coming down and education reforms that have made our children the best readers in the Western world.”
11:48AM
Rosie Duffield: Starmer has a problem with women Rosie Duffield has accused Sir Keir Starmer of having a “problem with women”.
“I’m afraid I do [think he does], yes,” the newly independent MP for Canterbury, who quit Sir Keir’s Labour party last night, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“Most backbenchers that I’m friends with are women, and most of us refer to the men that surround him, young men, as ‘the lads’.
“And it’s very clear that the lads are in charge, they’ve now got their Downing Street passes. They’re the same lads who were there briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs. And, you know, I was really hoping for better. But it wasn’t to be.”
11:32AM
Sunak: We must unite behind whoever becomes leader The Conservatives must unite behind whoever is elected as its new leader, Rishi Sunak has urged.
In an op-ed for the House magazine, his first major intervention since the general election, the former prime minister said the annual gathering “will be a unique opportunity to debate and reflect on the future of the Conservative Party”.
Mr Sunak added: “Just as importantly for many going, it will also be one to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
“We, the Conservative Party, are a family and, once this contest is over, we must come together to support our new leader.”
Continuing with another apology to members and MPs past and present, he said: “This will be my last conference as leader, and I want to thank everyone in the party for their support. I will always be sorry that I could not deliver the results that everyone’s efforts deserved, but I will always be grateful for everyone’s hard work and commitment.”
11:13AM
‘There’s more to Sir Keir than meets the eye – and it’s not looking good’ Isn’t it funny how it’s always the quiet ones? There we were, thinking Sir Keir Starmer was as dull as an old stainless steel spoon, but it turns out he is rather more colourful – and complicated – than we all supposed, writes Isabel Oakeshott.
Luxury penthouse apartments; designer clothes; VIP seats in Premier League football stadiums and much sought-after hot tickets to pop concerts – evidently he’s been living quite the high life.
Posing on the front cover of a magazine this week, our prime minister looks blander than ever – like a thousand other middle-aged middle managers. On closer inspection, the picture isn’t even him: it’s AI generated. Which is quite apposite really, because many of us are beginning to wonder who he really is.
As the revelations about the benefits he derived from his friendship with a wealthy party donor continue to flow, it is increasingly apparent that there is much more to Sir Keir than meets the eye.
Isabel Oakeshott: Starmer has been living quite the high life
10:56AM
Kemi Badenoch: Britain needs to be clear in its national identity Kemi Badenoch told Times Radio: “People are running away from terrifying regimes and coming here. We cannot allow the things they’re running from to spring up here.
“Immigrants come here to build their lives, not to build this country. We should ask them to contribute to this country.
“But at some point if you just become a mix of everything that’s just going on around the world, what is it that you’re uniting around, what is your national identity?”
10:51AM
Badenoch: People cannot live in ‘separate cells doing their own thing’ Kemi Badenoch said the Tory Party had become “fatigued” and unclear in its mission.
“We need to renew our party because after 14 years in government, it feels fatigued and people don’t know what we stand for.
“And that is because we have not been governing from first principles. When I was knocking on doors, people would say you’re too Left-wing, you’re too Right-wing. That is a sign that the mission was lost.”
Mrs Badenoch said her “founding principles” were personal responsibility and freedom.
Pressed on her comments on identity, she added: “You need to have people who care about who lives next door to them more than thousands of miles away… If you are going to have a multi-ethnic society, you need to bind people together, not allow people to live in separate cells doing their own thing.”
10:48AM
Badenoch: Rosie Duffield is amazing, but she’s not a Conservative Kemi Badenoch said Rosie Duffield was “not a Conservative” when asked if she would welcome her into the Conservative Party.
“Rosie Duffield is an amazing person. Whenever people ask me whoever’s the Labour person you like most, I always say Rosie,” Mrs Badenoch told Times Radio.
“She fights for her beliefs, she’s passionate, she’s principled. She’s not a Conservative.”
On the abuse Ms Duffield has received, Mrs Badenoch said: “I’ve offered moral support where I can… She’s had abuse from her own side, which is the worse thing.”
10:43AM
Tugendhat: Britain has been lacking growth for too long Tom Tugendhat said Britain has been “lacking” the growth it needs for “too many years”.
The Tory leadership hopeful told GB News: “What I do is I champion freedom. I champion opportunity, I champion families, because those are Conservative values. Those are the building blocks of freedom.
“That’s how we achieve the results and the opportunities and frankly, the growth that this country has been lacking for too many years now. I have always said that we need to make sure people keep more of their own wealth. That’s why I didn’t support the rise in national insurance charges.
“I’m delighted that the Government eventually followed my lead there, and that’s why I’ve also championed full expensing, another policy where businesses can keep the money they invest.”
10:30AM
Not all cultures are equal, Kemi Badenoch says Not all cultures are “equally valid” when it comes to immigration, and failing to recognise that is “naive”, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Tory leadership candidate said that most politicians shy away from talking about immigration “in terms of culture as opposed to economics” as they fear it is “too controversial”.
Ms Badenoch explained that culture is “more than cuisine or clothes” but is also “customs which may be at odds with British values”.
In an article for The Telegraph, she said: “We cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not.”
Camilla Turner has the full story hereKemi Badenoch: Our country is not a dormitory 9:57AM
Badenoch and Jenrick clash over migration cap Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have clashed over the approach the Conservatives should adopt towards immigration.
The two frontrunners in the Tory leadership race publicly aired their disagreements on the first full day of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham after Mrs Badenoch wrote an op-ed for The Sunday Telegraph in which she stressed the importance of culture.
Mr Jenrick, who has committed to capping net migration in the tens of thousands or below, said he disagreed with her approach because “numbers also matter”.
“Just saying ‘I’ll have a plan in a few years’ time’ is a recipe for in-fighting and for losing the public’s trust. I have a plan,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Speaking on the same programme minutes later, Mrs Badenoch, who has not committed to a cap, said: “There were three things I said we needed to do. One, numbers matter. I was quite surprised that Rob actually misrepresented what I’ve been saying. Numbers do matter.
“Culture matters even more. Who comes into the country is absolutely critical, and leadership. You need to start from the top.”
9:51AM
Robert Jenrick: The age of mass migration must end Robert Jenrick was asked about Reform wanting a “one-in, one-out” approach to migration.
He told Sky News: “Well, I’ve been clear on this issue. I’ve said that the age of mass migration must end. It’s placing immense pressure on public services, on housing and community cohesion.”
Mr Jenrick said he wanted a mass migration cap “cast in iron” and to reduce numbers to the tens of thousands or lower.
9:48AM
Rwanda would have worked if it was stronger, says Robert Jenrick Sky’s Trevor Phillips told Robert Jenrick the Rwanda policy was “unpopular” and “nobody thought it could be delivered”.
Mr Jenrick replied:” The reason the Rwanda policy did not succeed is because it was not strong enough.
“I resigned from the cabinet at the turn of the year because, unfortunately, I was not able to persuade the then prime minister and the cabinet that we needed to strengthen the policy.
“The way to make Rwanda work, and to secure our borders to end mass migration, to end the small boats once and for all, is to carve out and to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.”
9:47AM
I stand for change in this contest, says Robert Jenrick Robert Jenrick has declared “I stand for change” in the Tory leadership contest.
He told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “I think we made mistakes, and I’ve been amongst all the leadership contenders the clearest in setting that out.
“I’ll always defend their achievements in government, but we have to be painfully honest about what went wrong. And I think we failed to deliver for the British people on some of the most important questions facing our country.
“We didn’t deliver the strong economy, the strong defence and the strong border that we promised. So what we have to do now is to listen to the public.
“That’s what any opposition has to do when they’ve just suffered their worst ever electoral defeat, and then we’ve got to say, how are we going to change?”
9:46AM
Robert Jenrick: Release the hostages to end Israel-Hamas conflict Robert Jenrick was the fourth Tory hopeful to speak to Sky’s Trevor Phillips.
Asked what he would say to Israel, Mr Jenrick said: “We all want to see peace in the Middle East and we all want this conflict to end, but my view is this, Israel cannot be expected to live alongside terrorists, whether that be Hamas or Hezbollah…
“We should be working with all of our allies to try to bring this conflict to a conclusion. But the way to do that is to get the hostages released, that is how we bring this conflict to a close.”
Mr Jenrick said he was not an “uncritical friend” of Israel and must “limit” the loss of life among civilians, which he believed they were doing, although insisted it was imported to stand with them as “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
9:40AM
Penny Mordaunt: I’m supporting all four candidates this week Penny Mordaunt, a former Tory MP and cabinet minister, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Irritatingly for you, I’m supporting all four of them this week… I’ve been there and I know how difficult it is.
“This week is not all about me, it’s about all of us as a party. The good news is across the country, conservative values are alive and well, but we have to reconnect our party with them.”
9:39AM
Lack of integration is a recipe for disaster, says Badenoch Kemi Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “People who come here should want to live in Britain, they want to love the country.
“They should want to contribute and wanted to succeed. We are not a dormitory. This is our home. People from all around the world just living here in their little bubbles and little groups is a recipe for disaster.
“I have seen it. I told you. I grew up in a country with 300 ethnic groups. This is a recipe for conflict, and the government needs to work hard on integration. You can’t just sit back and say, well, as long as you get a good job and don’t commit crimes, that’s fine.”
9:36AM
Badenoch clashes with Kuenssberg: ‘I’m not going to play this game’ Asked who she specifically meant when referring to immigrants who hate Israel, Kemi Badenoch told Laura Kuenssberg: “I know what you’re trying to do. Laura, you want me to say Muslims, but it isn’t all Muslims. So I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to play this game.
“I should be able to say that I have made an observation without you trying to portray it as me attacking a particular group.”
Ms Kuenssberg insisted she was not trying to do that and asked about the evidence Mrs Badenoch had.
The shadow housing secretary replied: “I talked about people ripping down posters. We saw who was doing it. We read about cases.”
9:32AM
Culture matters ‘even more’ than numbers, says Badenoch Kemi Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “There were three things I said we needed to do. One, numbers matter. I was quite surprised that Rob actually misrepresented what I’ve been saying. Numbers do matter.
“Culture matters even more. Who comes into the country is absolutely critical, and leadership. You need to start from the top.”
9:31AM
Kemi Badenoch: Lots of cultures are ‘less valid’ than others Asked which cultures she believed were “less valid” than others, Kemi Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Lots. Cultures that believe in child marriage, for instance, or where women don’t have equal rights.
“I actually think it’s extraordinary that people think that’s an unusual or controversial thing to say, of course, not all cultures very flat. I don’t believe in cultural relativism.
“I believe in western values, the principles which have made this country great. And I think that we need to make sure that we continue to abide by those principles to keep the society that we have now.”
Recalling her time on the election trail, Mrs Badenoch said: “You’d knock on doors and you see somebody at the door who says ‘I can’t speak to you, I will get my husband’.”
9:28AM
Jenrick: It’s natural that I would back Republican candidate over Democrats Robert Jenrick was asked by Laura Kuenssberg about his stated backing for Donald Trump.
He said: “I’m a conservative. The Conservative Party has strong and historic links to the Republican Party, so it is natural that we would lean towards Republican candidates.
“It’s clearly going to be a close race. I respect Kamala Harris. I would obviously seek to work productively, directly with whoever is the next President of the United States. I think it’s normal, it is natural for a conservative to lean towards Republican candidates. So I will work with whoever is president.”
Asked whether he was refusing to back Trump, Mr Jenrick said: “No, I said, look, I, as a Conservative, lean towards the Republican party… but as a future leader of the opposition, prospective prime minister of our country, of course I would work with whoever leads the United States.”
9:26AM
Jenrick: I want to take on both Lib Dems and Reform Asked if the bigger enemy was Nigel Farage or Sir Ed Davey, Robert Jenrick said: “I want to take on both, I don’t believe that you have to pick a lane.
”I want to bring back the millions of people we lost to Reform by leaving the ECHR, by ending the era of mass migration, and I want to bring about the people we’ve lost to the Lib Dems.”
He concluded: “I want the Conservative Party to be the trade union for the working people of this country.”
9:25AM
The Home Office is ‘in ashes’, says Robert Jenrick Robert Jenrick said of his ministerial record: “When I was in the Home Office, I entered a department in ashes, and over my year in the Home Office I worked relentlessly on legal migration to secure the biggest change to that system in my lifetime.
“It will ensure that the number of people coming into our country legally goes down by around 300,000 and you can already see that flowing into the numbers.
“And on illegal migration, I was the only minister who reduced the number of people coming across on small boats and I got the number of deportations in this country up by 80 per cent in a year.
“But it wasn’t enough. That’s why I ultimately resigned because I wasn’t able to persuade the Prime Minister and those who are in cabinet at that time… We will never secure our borders, we will never get dangerous terrorists and criminals out of our country, unless we leave the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Mr Jenrick said that while culture mattered, he disagreed with Kemi Badenoch, who has refused to commit to a net migration cap, because “numbers also matter”.
On her also refusing to commit to leave the ECHR, he said: “Just saying ‘I’ll have a plan in a few years time’ is a recipe for in-fighting and for losing the public’s trust. I have a plan. I want us to get on and start to implement that when we’re lucky enough to be in government again.”
9:22AM
Cutting mass migration doesn’t have to cost money, insists Jenrick Asked about cutting migration, Robert Jenrick told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I do think we have to make clear that we’re going to do this this time, because we lost so much trust by failing to deliver this in the past. And so that means parliament, setting a legally binding cap on migration in the tens of thousands or lower.
“Otherwise, politicians can’t look the public in the eye… That was at the heart of the reason I resigned as a minister, because I didn’t want to be just another minister, who made and broke specific promises.”
He added: “I don’t pretend that pretending this era of mass migration is going to be plain sailing. It requires us to link up our skills policy and our welfare policy and have a proper plan… But I don’t think that it needs to cost us money.
“Millions of people in our country are on welfare. I want to help those people into the dignity and the security of work. I want to ensure that we are paying our workers more money. That is a better way for our country to conduct itself rather than bringing in people from overseas.”
9:19AM
Robert Jenrick: Mass migration has not made our country richer Robert Jenrick is being interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
The Tory leadership hopeful said his party had “got to listen to the public and set out serious answers” to challenges on the NHS and immigration.
“I want to use this leadership contest for us to settle those things and to have a clear plan as to how we take our party and our country forward, and I have that in particular on immigration.”
Asked if he was happy to accept lower economic growth in order to cut immigration, he said: “I don’t agree that the age of mass migration has made our country richer. In the 25 years since Tony Blair became prime minister, we’ve had 5.9 million people coming into our country legally.
“It was 59,000 in the 25 years prior to that, and this has not been a period of record growth, record productivity for rate. In fact, far from it.”
9:16AM
Tom Tugendhat: Judge me on the decisions I have made Tom Tugendhat, who went to St Paul’s, was asked by Trevor Phillips if the Tories “really need another posh boy leader from a public school”.
He replied: “I think the Conservative Party need a leader who can lead. And you can judge me on the decisions my parents made 35 years ago, or you can judge me on the decisions I’ve made for the last 35 years.
“I think the decisions I’ve made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you’re looking at. I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I’ve put myself on the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was injured in Iraq and I fought in Afghanistan.
“And these are decisions I took to serve our country and to put myself at risk to do it.”
9:14AM
Tom Tugendhat: Britain have suffered an absence of leadership Tom Tugendhat told Sky News there had been an “absence of leadership” in recent years, saying “the way I would deliver is by leading”.
Recalling serving on operations overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, he added: “I’ve been a soldier. I’ve helped to rebuild government in Afghanistan and served on the National Security Council.
“I’ve spent years serving the public in various different ways, including standing up against hate, against tyrants when I was chairing the foreign affairs committee, and as you know that got me sanctioned by China, by Russia and by Iran, a country that is now threatening us again.
“And I’ve been warning clearly for years that the alliance of tyrants and dictatorships that we’ve seen growing in recent years is a direct threat to the British people.”
Mr Tugendhat added: “I’ve always offered leadership, I’ve always offered direction, that example we need to follow, of how we achieve the results that this country needs.”
9:10AM
The Tories failed to deliver, admits Tom Tugendhat Tom Tugendhat said “failure to deliver” cost the Conservatives the general election in July.
“Quite understandably, people have looked at us and asked us what our record is… The focus of the media has been where we’ve drawn attention, and we’ve drawn attention to the in-fighting and not our success.”
Mr Tugendhat said there was a “successful” record on Universal Credit and the performance of Andy Street in the West Midlands and Lord Houchen in Tees Valley.
“We need to restore trust and the way we restore trust is by ending the culture of sleaze that sadly we now see infecting the Labour Party, and to make sure that we’re bringing back the trust that British people can expect in their parties… Change is the way our party will act.”
Asked which Tory leader he most blamed for the party’s failures in government, Mr Tugendhat said: “It’s a combination… The truth is each of them bear their own share of the responsibility, each of them got things wrong, each of them also had their successes.”
9:07AM
Tom Tugendhat: Iran is a pernicious and vicious threat Tom Tugendhat is the third of four Tory leadership hopefuls to appear with Sky’s Trevor Phillips.
Asked for his message to Israel, Mr Tugendhat replied: “Well, I’d be saying to Iran that this is no time for escalation, this is no time for reinforcing your militias in the region.”
Mr Tugendhat said “we don’t just have to be tough in words, we have to be tough in action” in dealing with Tehran, pointing to his introduction of the National Security Act.
“We need to be absolutely clear, Iran is a pernicious and vicious threat, not just to the region but also us in the United Kingdom.
“And standing against and countering those threats is keeping the British people safe and I will always lead this country to keep British people safe.”
9:05AM
Robert Jenrick: I like how direct Kemi Badenoch is Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are both in the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg studio preparing for their interviews.
Asked what they liked about each other, Mrs Badenoch said of Mr Jenrick: “I like the fact that he is a good family man.”
Mr Jenrick said: “I like her directness.”
On their disagreements, Mrs Badenoch replied: “We actually agree on quite a lot. We have disagreements on immigration policy but they are minor in the grand scheme of things.”
Mr Jenrick added: “Yeah, we do disagree on how we solve this migration puzzle. But I think you’re going to ask that in a few minutes’ time.”
9:02AM
The public have seen my flaws and still like me most, says Cleverly James Cleverly was asked about off-colour jokes he has told including a gag about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug which he later admitted was “awful”.
“The British people, who have had a chance to see me with all my faults and flaws, I am still the most popular candidate for them,” he told Sky.
“And the point is if you want to get back into government, you have to appeal to the British people, and not just each other.”
9:01AM
Cleverly: I’ve been the face and voice of four different prime ministers James Cleverly defended his relative lack of support from Tory MPs compared to Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.
“I have been the face and voice of, as you say, four different prime ministers and I have been a team player, which means I have had to promote other people’s ideas.
James Cleverly and his wife Susie arriving at the Conservative conference last night Geoff Pugh “I was happy to do so, that’s what you do as part of a team. The point I’m saying is I have not spent that time promoting my own ideas. This leadership campaign is about doing that.
“And the point is you say I’m most popular with the general population, that really matters if you’re trying to win a general election.”
8:59AM
James Cleverly hits back against IDS criticism James Cleverly was asked about Sir Iain Duncan Smith calling him “a wet rag kissing China’s backside” as foreign secretary.
“Iain understandably has very strong feeling towards China, he’s been sanctioned by the Chinese state,” Mr Cleverly told Sky.
“And when I went to Beijing and confronted the Chinese foreign minister, I said that the sanctions on him and other colleagues were wrong…
“Now if the point is if you want to exert influence as a diplomat you actually have to go to those countries… You have to confront the people around the world that you disagree with. And it’s most important that you do that directly, which is why I had direct contact with representatives of the Iranian state and the Russian state and the Belarussian state and the Chinese state… And misunderstanding that role is what Ian’s done.”
8:57AM
James Cleverly: The public didn’t like Tory bickering Reflecting on the election result, James Cleverly told Sky: “British voters told us not that they wanted a Labour government… They wanted us out of office, and we have got to listen to that.
“There’s no point getting angry with the voters… We got kicked out of office for a reason. What we’ve now got to do is get our act together, quickly, listen to what they told us properly, and then campaign once again on our core values to get back into office.”
He added: “I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like, they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.
“They didn’t like the fact that as soon as someone became prime minister, there were people within the party who set about removing them as prime minister. And we didn’t do that just once or twice. We did that over and over again.”
Mr Cleverly said “squabbling” in Tory ranks “amplified” problems including the Downing Street parties scandal and the markets’ response to the mini-Budget, overshadowing policies including furlough and support for Ukraine.
8:54AM
Cleverly: I would urge Israel to abide by international law James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, is now having his turn being interviewed by Sky’s Trevor Phillips.
Asked what he would say to Israel, Mr Cleverly replied: “I would see them what I said to them already when I was foreign secretary, when I met with President Herzog, when I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, defence minister Gallant.
“I’ve said that you do have a right to defend yourself, absolutely. They are surrounded by people who would do them harm. But when they do so, they have to abide by international law.
“They have to be conscious of civilian casualties, they have to act professionally, and show restraint. So I will be consistent. I’m always consistent what I said to them before, is what I would say to the future.”
Mr Cleverly said “any idiot” could speculate on what was going on but he would need intelligence briefings to decide whether Israel had crossed any “red lines”.
8:44AM
Badenoch: If you swing at me, I will swing back Kemi Badenoch was asked about high-profile rows with David Tennant and Nadine Dorries.
“I don’t know, I guess it must be being somebody who’s very forthright… There I was being nice, minding my own business and then they came after me.”
She added: “[David Tennant] told me to ‘shut up’. Why is it that people worry about someone who told back? They don’t like it when women talk back, they don’t like it when politicians talk back.
“I will talk back. I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me, I will swing back. But I don’t look for fights.”
Asked if she was “too Nigerian” for British politics, she said: “I doubt that, Nigerians tells me I’m too British. I am just Kemi, I am something that’s just different and unique. And that’s why I stand out in this contest, and that’s why I think members like me.”
8:42AM
Not all Muslim migrants hate Israel, says Badenoch Asked whether she was referring to all Muslim immigrants when she said she was struck by how many immigrants hated Israel, Kemi Badenoch told Sky: “Because it’s not all Muslims, and this is what I don’t do. I’m very careful when I speak.
“I’ve met many Muslim people who love Israel. I’ve met them in the Middle East, when I went to Saudi, when I went to the UAE, you know, you look at the Abrahamic Middle East…
“It is not all Muslims, but there are some who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam. They do not like us.”
8:40AM
Tory Party broken but I would fix it, says Badenoch Kemi Badenoch said she “got stuff done” as a secretary of state and would fix the “broken” Conservative Party.
“It certainly was the case that even the smallest thing on equalities would get front page news and, you know, you sign trade deals, you deliver, you know, transformation for steel works in Port Talbot, it’s a tiny little thing in the at the bottom of the newspaper.
Geoff Pugh “I can’t help that. What I can say, all aspects of my job, whether it was business secretary, whether it’s trade secretary, minister, I got stuff done.
“When things were broken, I fixed them, and that’s what I want to do in the party.”
8:39AM
I’m starting from first principles, says Kemi Badenoch Kemi Badenoch told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips she was different from the other candidates because she was “starting from first principles”.
“I’m not standing throwing out lots of new policy and saying ‘this time we’ll do this’.
“What I believe we need to do now is to win the trust of the British people again, and that means starting with principles.
“What do we believe in? Personal responsibility. We haven’t talked about those things as much. Freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association.
“We stopped talking about the principles. That’s what people buy into when they’re voting for a political party, not just what latest managerial policy might be announced.”
8:37AM
Badenoch: We were talking Right and governing Left Asked whether the Conservatives deserved to lose, Kemi Badenoch said: “Well, I don’t think we deserved to win. People didn’t understand what we stood for.
“I often tell people that we were talking Right and governing Left. An example of that is increasingly we gave out lots of prison sentences, but we didn’t get around building more prison places for all sorts of reasons.
“And from the public’s perspective, it looked like we weren’t still delivering. We need to be able to show that, and that we also say what we mean and mean what we say, that’s what I want to bring to the contest.”
8:35AM
Badenoch: I would be congratulating Israel Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leadership candidate, said she would be congratulating Israel after it killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
“I would be congratulating Prime Minister Netanyahu. I think what they did was extraordinary, Israel is showing that it has moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West as well.
“Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation and I think being able to remove the leader of Hezbollah as they did will create more peace in the Middle East.”
Mrs Badenoch said it was not about giving Israel a “free pass”, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s country “has a right to defend itself” and the Oct 7 attacks proved it “had to do what they have to do” to defend themselves.
”We understand that the Palestinian people in particular are suffering. This is very difficult for them. but we need to remember that the aggressor here is Hamas. That is what Israel is trying to destroy, as well as Hezbollah of course.”
8:30AM
Express yourself Kemi Badenoch posted a picture of herself enjoying a copy of today’s Daily Express, in which she vows to stop the boats, as she prepared for her morning media round interviews:
8:28AM
Meanwhile in Labour land… Rosie Duffield has said she lost “faith” in Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of Labour after sensationally quitting the party on Saturday night.
The MP for Canterbury told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We all had our faith in Keir Starmer and a Labour government, and I feel that voters and activists and MPs are being completely laughed at and completely taken for granted.
”It is so profoundly disappointing to me as a Labour voter and an activist… to see this is what we have become.”
Claiming Sir Keir’s first three months in Downing Street showed his leadership had become “more about greed and power than making a difference”, she added: “I just can’t take any more.”
8:26AM
What’s on the agenda this morning? Proceedings in the main conference hall do not get underway until 2.45pm today when Richard Fuller, the interim Conservative Party chairman, will address members.
But there is plenty of excitement before then as all four Tory leadership hopefuls are put through their paces by Sky’s Trevor Phillips from 8.30am.
James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat will all be grilled by the veteran political interviewer.
Mrs Badenoch and Mr Jenrick, the two front-runners, will then appear on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg from 9am. Mr Cleverly and Mr Tugendhat have already been on the programme during the leadership contest.
8:23AM
Kemi Badenoch: Leaving the ECHR ‘not where I would start’ Kemi Badenoch has said leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) would not be her starting point to tackle the migration crisis.
In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Mrs Badenoch “A lot of people talk about leaving the ECHR as if it is a silver bullet. It’s not. Leaving the ECHR alone will not solve our immigration issues. It’s not even the most radical thing we need to do.
“We need a wholesale strategy that starts with thinking about what kind of country we want to be, who are we letting in, why are they here? How long are they going to be here for? Are they committed to our country? Do they want to be British?”
Mrs Badenoch added: “If we have to leave the ECHR in order to control our borders we should do so, but it is not a silver bullet. It is not a plan in and of itself. It is not where I would start. I don’t give easy answers to complex problems. I’m an engineer, I like to think about the whole system.”
Robert Jenrick, Mrs Badenoch’s main leadership rival, has committed to leaving the ECHR. Tom Tugendhat, meanwhile, would derogate from parts of it and opt out altogether if needed.
8:17AM
Welsh Tory leader: We owe Britain an apology The leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd warned that his party is facing an “existential crisis” as he demanded the party apologises for its record in office.
Speaking ahead of the annual Tory conference, Andrew RT Davies said his party “must apologise to the Welsh and British public for failing to keep its promises on immigration”.
Adding that Welsh voters are “inherently conservative”, Mr Davies went on: “If the Party returns to its values, it will win them over”.
And looking ahead to the Welsh elections of two years’ time, as well as the next national poll, he warned: “If our party changes, we’ll recover quickly, and we’ll succeed in 2026 and 2029. But if we don’t, we’ll die. That’s the choice.”
8:10AM
Team Badenoch seizes on Conservative Home survey While the main movement in the Conservative Home survey of Tory activists this morning favoured Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch’s campaign has wasted no time in pointing out that she still enjoys a comfortable lead among the grassroots:
8:09AM
Good morning Dominic Penna here, guiding you through the first full day of the annual Conservative Party conference here in Birmingham.
This year’s gathering of the party faithful is quite unlike any other in recent memory with the Tories having slumped to a record defeat at the general election in July.
Indeed, its prime purpose will be to search for a successor to Rishi Sunak as the four remaining leadership hopefuls tour fringe events, schmooze MPs and delegates at receptions and give a 20-minute speech in the hope of eventually ousting Sir Keir Starmer from No 10.
James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat are all acutely aware that the party must go a long way to earn another hearing from the public, and yet they are all confident that they alone can lead it back into power.