The four candidates in the Tory leadership contest are making their pitches to members as the Conservative party conference gets under way in Birmingham.
Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly appeared on Sunday morning politics shows to face questions about their stances on immigration, Israel and infighting.
The conference gets going at about 2.30pm with an apology from the interim chair of the party for the general election defeat, with the leadership hustings scheduled for 4pm.
Penny Mordaunt has compared Starmer to a former Filipino politician convicted for corruption.
The former Tory MP and cabinet minister made the remark amid criticism of Starmer receiving freebies, including £32,000 worth of hospitality and clothes from the Labour peer Lord Alli.
Mordaunt told the BBC that Starmer had brought “a touch of Imelda Marcos to the office of prime minister”.
Marcos is the former first lady of the Philippines, and was famed for a lavish lifestyle at odds with one of the poorest nations on earth. When political activists drove her and her husband out of the presidential palace and into exile, she was forced to abandon 3,000 pairs of her shoes, 50 suitcases stuffed with jewels, several bulletproof bras and a large art collection.
Tom Tugendhat: I’m not the leadership race tailender
Tom Tugendhat has said he “kept the King’s secrets”, as he batted away questions about his level of experience in government.
As security minister under Rishi Sunak, Tugendhat is the only one of the final four Tory leadership contenders not to have served as a secretary of state.
When it was put to him that he had a lower public profile than his rivals, Tugendhat said his job had been to “keep the King’s secrets”.
Tom Tugendhat said: “I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan”
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
He added: “You may not have see the jobs but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done them.”
Tugendhat also said he had “chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
Speaking to Times Radio, Tugendhat also denied being the “tailender” in the Tory leadership race, after coming joint last in the last ballot of MPs with Cleverly.
Pat McFadden dismisses Duffield ‘squalls’
Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, dismissed Rosie Duffield’s criticisms of Sir Keir Starmer as “squalls”.
He claimed that Duffield had been disillusioned with the Labour Party and its leader “for quite a long time”.
“I don’t think this is something that just developed in the last few months,” McFadden told the BBC. “I’m disappointed to see her go. I like Rosie, but ultimately I’m not surprised at the decision that she has made.”
Duffield said she decided to resign as a Labour MP after the controversy over Starmer’s gifts of clothing from the Labour donor Lord Alli.
“When you have got people with so much more money than the average person spending somebody’s yearly salary on their own clothes without feeling like they have to apologise or explain, I just feel like I’m not getting anywhere with trying to get that from my leader,” Duffield said.
James Cleverly refuses to point the finger over election defeat
James Cleverly has defended serving under four Conservative prime ministers, and declined to say which one was most to blame for the party’s election defeat.
The shadow home secretary and Tory leadership hopeful told Sky News: “I have been a team player, which has meant I have had to promote other people’s ideas. I was happy to do so, it’s what you do as part of a team.”
James Cleverly with wife, Susie, in Birmingham
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA
He added: “I have not spent that time promoting my own ideas.”
Cleverly did not say which former PM was most responsible for the party’s election defeat in July, but said: “What [voters] did tell us is they wanted us out of office. And we have got to listen to that. We have got to respond to that. There’s no point getting angry with the voters. We certainly shouldn’t imply or say that they were wrong. Voters are never wrong. Sometimes politics is brutal but it’s beautiful.”
Rosie Duffield: Starmer has a ‘problem with women’
Rosie Duffield said: “It’s very clear that the lads are in charge”
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
Sir Keir Starmer has a “problem with women” and has surrounded himself with young men, Rosie Duffield has claimed.
“It’s very clear that the lads are in charge,” the Canterbury MP told the BBC. “They have now got their Downing Street passes, they are the same lads who were briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs and I was really hoping for better but it wasn’t to be.”
Pat McFadden, a key figure in Labour’s election campaign and now a member of the cabinet, dismissed the allegation. “I think I’m a bit too old to be a lad. Some of the stuff in [Duffield’s resignation] letter I just don’t accept.”
I respect Kamala Harris, says Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick has declined to repeat his previous endorsement of Donald Trump for the US presidency.
Last month, the Tory leadership hopeful and former immigration minister said if he were allowed a vote he would support Trump.
However, on Sunday he declined to repeat that stance. “I’m a Conservative. The Conservative Party has strong and historic links to the Republican Party,” he told the BBC.
“So it is natural that we would lean towards Republican candidates. It’s clearly going to be a close race. I respect Kamala Harris.
“As a prospective prime minister of our country, of course I would work with whoever is leader of the United States.”
Robert Jenrick: I’ll pull UK out of ECHR
Robert Jenrick criticised previous Conservative approaches to migration as “too liberal”
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA
Robert Jenrick has vowed to set a legally binding cap on migration to “the tens of thousands or lower”.
The former immigration minister told Sky News that the limit would be “cast in iron”. He also vowed to pull the UK out of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Jenrick was asked how his plan differed from previous efforts, such as David Cameron’s pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. “There’s never been a cap before,” he replied. “Before, we had an open-ended system, where anyone could apply for a visa. The criteria set by the ministers at the time was wrong, it was too liberal.”
Labour promises to close ‘Tory freebies loophole’
Labour will tighten up the rules on declarations of hospitality after the controversy over freebies, Pat McFadden has said.
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster claimed that the disparity between rules covering ministers and shadow ministers was a “Tory loophole”.
“That was the Tory rules, we don’t think that’s fair, so we will close that loophole so ministers and shadow ministers are treated the same going forward,” he told the BBC.
Details of gifts to ministers are only released quarterly and do not include the value, while MPs have to declare their hospitality and the cost every two weeks.
Rosie Duffield: Why I’ve quit Labour
The Conservatives got an unexpected boost on the eve of conference when The Sunday Times broke the news that Rosie Duffield had resigned as a Labour MP.
Duffield blamed Sir Keir Starmer’s “cruel and unnecessary” policies and the freebies row for her decision as she accused the prime minister of overseeing “sleaze, avarice and nepotism”.
“I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” the MP for Canterbury wrote.
• Read in full: Rosie Duffield on Labour’s sleaze, nepotism and greed
Badenoch praises Israel after strikes on Lebanon
Badenoch praised Israel after strikes on Lebanon killed Hezbollah’s leader, welcoming its “moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West as well”.
Badenoch told reporters: “I don’t look for fights”
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
She added that removing the leader of Hezbollah would ultimately “create more peace in the Middle East”.
Addressing a question about whether she liked picking fights, Badenoch said: “If you swing at me, I will swing back. But I don’t look for fights.”
Badenoch: Immigrants who cause ‘cultural disputes’ should not be welcome in UK
Immigrants who come to the UK and cause “cultural disputes” should not be welcome, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Tory leadership contender and shadow communities secretary criticised a recent rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who she said “hate Israel”.
Asked on Sky News if she was referring to Muslims, Badenoch disagreed, adding: “It is not all Muslim immigrants…
“But there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two. That is why I don’t just use a word that brings so many people into the group.”