Rishi Sunak arrives in Birmingham for Conservative Party conference - as those hoping to take his place as Tory boss continue with their lacklustre and ponderous leadership bids
Rishi Sunak has arrived in Birmingham for the Conservative Party Conference, amid lacklustre and ponderous bids by leadership hopefuls.
Rishi Sunak has arrived in Birmingham for the Conservative Party Conference, amid lacklustre and ponderous bids by leadership hopefuls.
Mr Sunak arrived on Saturday afternoon with his wife Akshata Murty. The pair were welcomed by the partys interim chairman Richard Fuller ahead of conference opening on Sunday.
The first conference since the partys crushing general election defeat in July will prominently feature the leadership contest to succeed Mr Sunak.
Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat will all have an opportunity to address and answer questions at the conference - which runs until Wednesday - and their campaigns will be lobbying MPs before parliamentarians narrow the race down to two.
The final two candidates will be put to a ballot of party members, the result of which will be declared on November 2.
Rishi Sunak arriving in Birmingham for the Conservative Party Conference from Sunday
Mr Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty were welcomed by the partys interim chairman Richard Fuller, ahead of the conference which starts tomorrow
Robert Jenrick waves to cameras as he arrives in Birmingham with his wife Michelle Berkner
But the conference comes as a senior party source told the BBCs Laura Kuenssberg that the hopefuls campaigns had so far been lacklustre and ponderous.
Another source said that the race to lead the party was still wide open.
Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick will both appear on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg tomorrow morning.
On Monday and Tuesday all four remaining candidates will get a 30-minute grilling in the conference hall with questions from the audience.
Each of the candidates will also have a 20-minute slot on Wednesday for a speech to impress members.
All four will also attend 20 events during the course of the conference, including Q&As, press interviews and panel discussions.
Ms Badenoch arrived shortly ahead of Mr Sunak on Saturday afternoon, and spoke to a number of supporters of her campaign before heading into her hotel.
Mr Cleverly and Mr Jenrick also followed after Mr Sunaks arrival, while Mr Tugendhat is also expected to arrive in the Midlands city today.
Braintree MP Mr Cleverly and his wife Susie were greeted by Arun Photay, regional chairman of the West Midlands Conservatives and Michael Winstanley, chair of conference.
Mr Jenrick was greeted by a crowd of his supporters carrying Jenrick for leader placards, as he and his wife Michal Berkner arrived in Birmingham.
Ahead of the conference getting under way, former party leader and prime minister Theresa May warned that the party failed to see the threat from the Liberal Democrats while focusing too much on Reform.
Writing in The Times on Saturday, Baroness May said the candidates for the leadership could play into Reforms hands by failing to understand why they lost the general election.
She said the Conservatives lost power in July not due to policy but because the party had trashed our brand, losing its reputation for integrity and competence.
Conservative leadership contender James Cleverly and his wife Susannah arriving at their hotel in Birmingham
Leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch arriving for the conference, which will be the partys first since its crushing election defeat in July
Blaming the Partygate scandal and Liz Trusss mini-budget, Lady May added the Tories had spent too long tacking to the right in order to appease potential Reform voters and forgot that we are not a right-wing party but a centre-right party.
As well as the meetings and speeches likely at conference, leadership candidates also took the opportunity to set out their pitches on Saturday in interviews and op-eds for national newspapers.
Immigration has so far featured heavily in the leadership race, with frontrunner Mr Jenrick making it a centrepiece of his campaign and arguing the partys defeat was because it broke its promises on the issue.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, he said he wanted to put Nigel Farage out of business and described Reform as a symptom not a cause.
He said: It exists in its current state because my party failed. We made promises on issues that millions of people...small c conservatives like me, care passionately about, like controlled and reduced immigration, like securing our borders, and we didnt deliver on those promises.
Meanwhile, Ms Badenoch used a Times interview to accuse Mr Jenricks campaign of engaging in dirty tricks by lending votes to Mr Cleverly in an effort to keep her out of the final two.
She said: If the MPs try and stitch it up, I think the members will be very angry.
Mr Jenricks campaign has denied Ms Badenochs allegations.
Mr Cleverly, the former home secretary, focused on tax rather than immigration in an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph, saying Labours election attack line that the Conservatives had raised the tax burden to its highest level in decades showed the party have work to do.
