Who’s on top in the Tory leadership contest?

In recent years, the Conservative party conference has become something of an irrelevance. Often it is little more than a networking event, filled with dull speeches, all carefully stage-managed by No. 10. But next week’s gathering in Birmingham will be one of those rare Tory conferences that decide the party’s future.

The leadership race has gone on for so long that the conference will be a political talent contest, with the four remaining leadership candidates – Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick – setting out their stalls. ‘We know each other’s lines so well now that we could imitate each other,’ says one leadership contestant. ‘There is definite growing regret that it’s taking so long,’ says a member of the shadow cabinet. ‘We were too indulgent to MPs who wanted to have a break over the summer.’

It was another mistake, perhaps, to give the instruction, for the sake of unity, that candidates shouldn’t land blows on each other.