James Cleverly defends plan to revive Truss policy as Tory leadership hopefuls make final pitches – UK politics live

Tory leadership candidates will tell members today that they need “a New Conservative Party” to address the needs of the country and turn their fortunes around after suffering the worst defeat in their 346-year history.

Both frontrunner Robert Jenrick and rival Tom Tugendhat will make the appeal for a New Conservative Party in what appears to be an attempt at using Tony Blair’s playbook.

The former Labour prime minister took Labour back into power in 1997 as “New Labour” after 18 years in the wilderness.

Our political editor David Maddox has the full story below:

Tom Tugendhat has criticised the Iranian influence across Lebanon and the Middle East branging it “utterly pernicious”.

The shadow security secretary, whose first job was working as a stringer for The Times in Lebanon, claimed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s government is “spreading its revolutionary ideology” across the region.

He told Times Radio: “They do it in Yemen, they tried to do it in Bahrain and they do it in a number of people do.”

Asked about Israel’s pledge to “react as we see fit” and the possibility of civilian casualties, he said: “I’m sure like any professional army they will be targeting military targets.

“The aim of the Israeli state has been as far as I’ve seen in the past few days targeting the areas where the rockets are coming from, where those weapons are coming from… I’m not part of the Israeli command team of course but that’s exactly what I’m doing.

“As leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister I’d be urging them to do exactly that.”

Tom Tugendhat, who is doing the morning media round, has doubled down on his criticism of Robert Jenrick’s special forces comments.

It comes after the former immigration secretary said the SAS was “killing rather than capturing terrorists”.

Responding to his claim, Mr Tugendhat told Times Radio: “I’m afraid what has been said in that video, it’s just factually inaccurate, it’s not true.”

Asked if the comments were dangerous, the shadow security secretary said they were “unwise”.

Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch said people who want to move to the UK need to be “very committed”, adding the country is “not a dormitory”.

Asked how she would make culture part of an immigration strategy, the former business secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s all about doing everything in tandem. I said numbers matter, culture matters more but leadership is key and we need to think about all of it together.

“What we did previously was just leave the Home Office to look at people coming in and out, but we need to make sure that when people are coming to this country they are people who are coming to contribute and also who want the success of our country.

“Of course there will be others who are passing through, like student visas, for example, but if people want to stay here, we live in an age where you need to be very committed: we are not a dormitory, we’re not a sponge.

“I’m somebody who came to this country at 16 and I did so wanting to be here, wanting to be from here, so culture matters.”

Pressed on what her integration strategy would be, Ms Badenoch said: “It is about making sure that we keep our values… it’s values like citizenship, being more than just having a passport, it’s an expectation that you create for people, and government does need to talk about that.”

The Conservative Party conference is coming to an end with Tory candidates set to address delegates to make their final pitches.

Tom Tugendhat will be the first to take the stage at 10.45am. The shadow security minister will set out his plans for a “new Conservative revolution” in areas such as the economy and housing.

James Cleverly will speak second and Robert Jenrick will make the third pitch amid backlash from his rivals for claiming that UK special forces were “killing rather than capturing” terrorists.

Kemi Badenoch, tipped as grassroots favourite, will be the one to close out the conference with her keynote speech.

We will bring you all the updates and analysis live from the Conservative party conference throughout the day.

James Cleverly has signalled he is willing to axe stamp duty on home purchases in order to help the economy “thrive”.

Asked if he would pledge to slash the tax should he win the Tory leadership contest, the Conservative former minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme stamp duty “stagnates the market”.

He added: “At the last general election, my party – the Conservative Party – was being criticised by the Labour Party for taxing too much.

“If we don’t start cutting taxes, we stifle the economy and we will ultimately not be able to thrive as a country.”

When put to him that the measure was explored by Liz Truss in her short tenure as prime minister, Mr Cleverly replied: “Your argument is because one of my predecessors proposed it, we can never propose it?

“This is why we have now got the highest tax burden since the war. Higher than many of our international competitors and high enough that the Labour Party felt liberated to criticise us.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the Conservative brand is “completely damaged” and he has no intention of doing a deal with the next Tory leader.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Farage said of the four Conservative Party leadership candidates: “They all think with a new leader ‘it’ll all be fine, all the voters will come back to us’, and what they don’t understand is the Conservative brand is completely damaged, they have no chance of winning the next election.”

He added: “There would be no deal with them, I wouldn’t trust them anyway, they have a pattern of behaviour pretending to be one thing and then when they’re in government being quite the opposite.

“And, frankly, what I’m trying to do with Reform is replace them.”

Pressed on the Tory record on Brexit and asked if he was proud of the UK’s exit from the EU, Mr Farage said: “Do I think getting back our independence was the right thing to do? You bet your life.

“Do I think we’ve handled it well? Good Lord, no.”

British forces “played their part” in attempts to prevent further violence in the Middle East, the Defence Secretary has confirmed, after Sir Keir Starmer said he stands with Israel following an attack on the country by Iran.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, John Healey said he “completely condemn(s) Iran’s attack against Israel”.

“British forces have this evening played their part in attempts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East,” he added.

“I want to thank all British personnel involved in the operation for their courage and professionalism.”

Earlier the Prime Minister had said he was “deeply concerned that the region is on the brink” and again urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave amid escalating violence in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Britons fleeing Lebanon were set to board a UK Government-chartered flight to safety on today.

Mr Healey is visiting Cyprus to meet troops who are preparing for the possibility of evacuating British citizens from Lebanon.