Conservative Party conference latest updates: Jeremy Hunt warns voters won't automatically return to Tories after election 'trouncing' as Kemi Badenoch prepares to face Tory members after maternity pay row

Despite the Tories disastrous election result, James Cleverly appears determined to show there is room for optimism as he climbed inside a tractor and played Scalextic in Birmingham today.

A recent poll found the shadow home secretary is the preferred candidate to win the Tory leadership race amongst the British public, but he faces an uphill battle to beat Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch in the contest.

Mr Cleverly will be hoping to make an impression when he addresses the main conference hall on Tuesday before the final four candidates each grace the stage on Wednesday for a final time.

As well as the ongoing battle for the leadership for the Conservative party, it appears another contest is unfolding in Birmingham over who has the best merchandise.

Robert Jenrick supporting baseball caps sporting ‘We Want Bobby J’ have been spotted at the conference along with mugs aimed at Kemi Badenoch’s backers that read: ‘There’s no bad in Badenoch’.

Merchandise has been a common sight at party conferences this year with Reform flogging £20 MAGA-style hats and £15 ‘Let’s Save Britain’ t-shirts.

Following Jeremy Hunt’s event at the conference, read our deputy political editor David Wilcock’s report on a grave warning by the shadow chancellor

Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt today warned that ‘catastrophic’ mistakes by Labour at the Budget could hammer UK growth – after the Tories handed them a ‘surplus’.

After new sluggish GDP figures Mr Hunt told the Conservative Party Conference that he was concerned that Labour’s dour messaging on the economy could put people and businesses off from investing in British firms.

It comes amid fears that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could rewrite fiscal rules she inherited from the Tories to borrow as much as £60billion at the end of the October.

Leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has been pictured arriving at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.

Mr Tugendhat is expected in the main hall this afternoon to take questions from Tory members alongside his rival Kemi Badenoch.

Robert Jenrick has told an audience at the Conservative conference the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a ‘leave or die’ issue for the party.

This is more than just ‘leave or amend’: frankly, our party doesn’t have a future unless we take a stand and fix this problem.

It’s leave or die for our party – I’m for leave.

He called for the party conference to become the ‘crucible of conservatism’.

Let’s use this opportunity to settle this issue once and for all, and for our party to have the answer to one of the biggest challenges facing our country.

Let’s leave the ECHR and let’s get this done.

Tory leadership favourite Robert Jenrick has vowed to emulate Donald Trump by moving the British embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The former minister wore a ‘Hamas are terrorists’ hoodie as he addressed a Conservative Friends of Israel event at party conference in Birmingham.

Speaking alongside the other three candidates to replace defeated Rishi Sunak he also boasted of getting Israel added to the e-gates system at UK airports.

Conservative Party leadership contender Robert Jenrick addressed a breakfast rally on day two of the conference in Birmingham as he seeks to press his credentials this week.

Mr Jenrick is seen as one of the frontrunners to replace Rishi Sunak and will be speaking at a number of fringe events today before appearing on stage to take questions from voters tomorrow.

Mr Hunt said he feared reforming the welfare system will become ‘untouchable’ for Labour given the controversy surrounding the cut to the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.

He said he was worried the government was ‘so bady burnt’ over the row that it may lead them to inaction over increase to welfare spending.

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.

Mr Hunt has said the Conservatives must earn the trust of the voters before they can consider returning to government.

Touching on the recent election defeat, Mr Hunt said voters began to believe the Conservatives were ‘part of the problem not the solution’.

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.

Asked whether the Tories needed to focus in winning back Reform or Lib Dem voters, Mr Hunt said the party needed to do both as well as encouraging those who didn’t vote in July.

Jeremy Hunt has said not a single independent economist has backed up Rachel Reeves’ assertion that Labour were left with the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War.

The shadow chancellor described the claims from his successor as ‘one of the biggest lies we’ve had’ since Labour came to power.

He told the Conservative party conference:

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.

You don’t have to take my word for it, I mean just read this week’s Economist where there’s an article saying that (Reeves) could have actually not have a black hole of £22 billion but a surplus of £39 billion.

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.

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, is up first in the main hall at the party conference where he is taking part in a question and answer session.

We will bring you lines from the event as and when we can.

James Cleverly, one of four Conservative leadership contenders, has arrived on the second day of the party conference in Birmingham.

Mr Cleverly will participating in fringe events today before taking questions from Tory members in the main hall on Tuesday.

Ms Badenoch’s comments on maternity pay overshadowed the first day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham after it caused a row with her leadership rivals Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat.

It happened as a result at her assertion that businesses should have more control over maternity benefits.

The shadow housing secretary told Times Radio that the burden on regulation on firms was too high.

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 that the burden of regulation is too high.

Put to her that she is saying maternity pay is ‘excessive’, Ms Badenoch said:

I think it’s gone too far, 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 that we are creating an environment where people can work and people can have more freedom to make their individual decisions.

We need to have more personal responsibility. There was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies.

by James Tapsfield, MailOnline Political Editor

Kemi Badenoch has warned she is the only Tory leader hopeful who could ‘cut through’ to voters as she struggles to move on from a row over maternity pay.

The shadow housing secretary made a virtue of her willingness to court controversy after a turbulent day at party conference in Birmingham.

Allies have complained of a ‘Stop Kemi’ campaign by supporters of rival Robert Jenrick, who seized on her loose comments about work benefits for mothers.

The Tory leadership contest will not be speeded up so the winner can respond to the Budget on October 30, the party chair insisted today.

Richard Fuller bluntly ruled out the move despite alarm at the prospect of Rishi Sunak still being in charge for the crucial Labour set piece.

All four contenders have signalled they are open to bringing the finishing date forward from November 2, with the fiscal statement seen as a major opportunity for the new leader to put themselves in the public eye.

Richard Fuller, the chairman of the Conservatives, has toured the broadcast studios this morning for the Conservatives ahead of the second day of the party conference in Birmingham.

During his interviews, Mr Fuller insisted there will be no change to the timeline of the Tory leadership race to allow a new leader to be in place before the autumn budget.

He also said clarifying a position showed ‘maturity’ and responded to Nigel Farage’s criticism of the leadership contenders.

Here are the key takeaways from his appearance on the morning round.

• Mr Fuller told BBC Breakfast there would be ‘no change’ to the leadership timeline after candidates appeared to suggest Rishi Sunak’s successor should be in place to respond to the budget next month
• Asked about Kemi Badenoch’s remarks on maternity pay, Mr Fuller said clarifying a position is a “sign of maturity” and denied the contest was exposing deep divisions in the party
• Mr Fuller responded to criticism of the party leadership candidates by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and said the Tories do not have to move to the right to regain vote share from Reform
• He also urged the leadership contestants to ‘stop and think’ and unite behind whoever wins the contest

Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat will face Conservative members this afternoon with rivals James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick expected to take the stage tomorrow.

Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt and former prime minister Liz Truss are also expected to address delegate in Birmingham on Monday.

Main hall events include:

• 9.30am – Jeremy Hunt speech
• 2.10pm – Q&A with Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat

• 9.50am – How to save the NHS, Victoria Atkins
• 10.30am – Conservative Women’s Organisation in conversation with Robert Jenrick followed by Kemi Badenoch
• 11am – ERG: the future of the Conservative Party with Robert Jenrick and Mark Francois
• 12:30pm – Liz Truss in conversation with Tim Stanley
• 2pm – Conservative Women’s Organisation in conversation with James Cleverly

Firstly, let’s take a look at the state of the leadership contest with a report by the Daily Mail’s Whitehall Editor

Robert Jenrick is closing the gap with Kemi Badenoch in the Conservative leadership race, a poll of Tory members shows.

The former immigration minister is up seven points to 25 per cent, according to ConservativeHome.

Shadow housing secretary Ms Badenoch remains in the lead at 36 per cent, up two points, in the bellwether survey.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

Today is the second day of the conference with the opening day dominated by Kemi Badenoch’s apparent suggestion that maternity pay had ‘gone too far’.

Ms Badenoch, one of four leadership contenders, will be hoping to make a good impression today when she faces questions from Tory members alongside her rival Tom Tugendhat.

James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick will appear before members on Tuesday.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest coverage from Birmingham with our political team on the ground.