Tory leadership candidates pitch to members in final conference speeches

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Louise Thomas

Editor

Conservative leadership candidates reflected on their general election defeat in their final speeches at the party’s conference.

Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are all appealing to members in Birmingham in their bids to replace Rishi Sunak.

Mr Tugendhat told delegates that the party needs to “face the truth” that many people with conservative values “did not vote for us”.

Mr Cleverly apologised to members for the election loss and said that he would be the leader that Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Ed Davey and Nigel Farage “fear the most”.

Meanwhile, Mr Jenrick pitched for a “new Conservative Party” that is “built on the rock of our proudest traditions”, while Ms Badenoch warned that their defeat in July could “extinguish” the party.

Mr Tugendhat, who was up first on the conference stage, wanted to “speak directly to those of you who have supported us in the past but didn’t this time”.

He said: “If you went to Reform, I want to show you the Conservative values that we share. If you went to the Lib Dems I want you to see the opportunities that only we can deliver.

“If you went to Labour I want to show you why freedom, not state control, is how we build. If you stayed at home, I want to make you proud to vote Conservative again.”

Former home secretary Mr Cleverly told the conference he “hadn’t planned to run for leader”, and apologised to delegates “on behalf of the Conservative parliamentary party who let you down”.

He called on the party to be “enthusiastic” and “be more normal” in a bid to win back those who switched to Labour and other parties.

“Let’s sell the benefits of Conservatism with a smile,” he said.

“Because if we do, yes, because if we do we can see off the threat from Reform and the Lib Dems and win back Labour, and re-energise those Conservatives who stayed at home at the last general election, get them off the sofa to the ballot box and voting Conservative again.”

Mr Jenrick, viewed as the frontrunner in the contest, in his appeal to members after their “comprehensive defeat” at the general election, told delegates that “we need to be honest with ourselves: The country just doesn’t trust us right now”.

He said: “We’ve just suffered our worst-ever electoral defeat. We lost more seats and we won fewer votes than any government ever.”

He pledged that if he is elected leader he would build “a new Conservative Party” that is “built on the rock of our proudest traditions and noblest values”.

Ms Badenoch drew on her government experience to declare that the “system is broken” and warned that governments “run into trouble” without a plan.

“It is not enough just to be in government, because you can be in government and not have power,” she told delegates.

“Without a plan to fix the system you end up just announcing policies, doing media and waiting for something to happen, and then you run into trouble, as this Labour government are quickly finding out.

“For us it led to a reckoning, a historic defeat worse than 1997, a defeat that could extinguish the Conservative Party.

“We have to get this right.”

The speeches come at the end of a conference at which the contest has taken centre stage, but two of the candidates have found themselves facing a backlash over their comments.

Mr Jenrick has faced criticism after he claimed in a promotional video that UK special forces were “killing rather than capturing” terrorists, for fear of detainees being released under European human rights law.

Mr Tugendhat said it is “upsetting” that the video used footage of a soldier with whom he had served in Afghanistan, who has subsequently died.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Mr Tugendhat said he knew one soldier who had featured in footage in the video from his time in the Army in Afghanistan.

He said: “What’s particularly upsetting is that video is using a piece of footage of some of the people I served with, one of whom there died shortly after that film was taken, in an accident, and is not able to defend himself from the accusation that is effectively being levelled against him.

“I do not think we should be using footage of our special forces in operations.”

After days of trying to persuade members and colleagues in Birmingham, the leadership candidates will be whittled down from four to two next week by the parliamentary party before the membership gets the final say.

The winner will be announced on November 2.