The Conservatives will be warned today they need to stop being the ‘grumpy party’, as the four leadership candidates make their final pitch to activists.
James Cleverly will urge the party to ‘sell Conservatism with a smile’ as he takes on Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat for the Tory crown.
The four remaining candidates to succeed Rishi Sunak will each be given a 20-minute slot at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to set out their competing visions for rebuilding the party following its election thrashing in July.
Next week, Tory MPs will whittle the field down to two before Conservative activists make their final choice, with the result due to be announced on November 2.
A YouGov survey yesterday suggested that the commanding lead enjoyed by Mrs Badenoch among Tory activists has tightened dramatically.
James Cleverly will urge the party to ‘sell Conservatism with a smile’ as he takes on Kemi Badenoch , Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat for the Tory crown
A YouGov survey yesterday suggested that the commanding lead enjoyed by Mrs Badenoch (pictured) among Tory activists has tightened dramatically
Mr Tugendhat will make a wider appeal to disaffected Tory supporters who deserted the party at the last election, vowing to make them ‘proud to vote Conservative again
Mr Jenrick will call for the Tories to be rebuilt as the ‘New Conservatives’ as Tony Blair did with New Labour in the 1990s
The poll for Sky News found that the former business secretary is now just four points ahead of Mr Jenrick, down from 18 points in July.
Mr Cleverly will today urge activists to break out of the post-election gloom and stop being the ‘grumpy party’.
Echoing David Cameron’s upbeat approach at a Tory leadership contest two decades ago, he will say: ‘Let’s be enthusiastic; relatable; positive; optimistic. Let’s sell the benefits of a Conservative government with a smile.’
The former home secretary will pledge to ‘get the heel of the state off your neck, get their noses out of your business, and their hands out of your pocket’.
And he will warn against a shift to the Right to tackle Reform, saying: ‘We will not win back voters by pretending to be something we’re not. We win back voters by being honest, by being professional, by being Conservative.
‘Never forget – Reform didn’t deliver Brexit, we did. Reform didn’t cut immigration, I did. And mark my words, we will beat Reform by being the best version of ourselves.’
His comments contrast sharply with frontrunner Robert Jenrick, who will use his speech today to confirm he would take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to finally end the small boats crisis and undermine the appeal of Reform, whose success in picking up the votes of disaffected Tories helped drive the party to its worst defeat in history.
Mr Jenrick will call for the Tories to be rebuilt as the ‘New Conservatives’ as Tony Blair did with New Labour in the 1990s.
Mr Cleverly will today urge activists to break out of the post-election gloom and stop being the ‘grumpy party’
Mr Jenrick said the new leader had to be in place to ‘sock it to’ Rachel Reeves
Mr Tugendhat will make a wider appeal to disaffected Tory supporters who deserted the party at the last election
Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch will also focus on slashing the role of the state, saying it is time to dismantle the ‘bureaucratic class’ she says has paralysed Britain
‘The truth is this,’ he will say. ‘If we’re to tackle the immense challenges we face, if we’re to restore the public’s trust, we must build something new.
‘Nothing less than, a New Conservative Party, built on the rock of our oldest values and best traditions.’
He will identify five issues on which the party must ‘take a stand, including ‘rejecting mass migration’, focusing on ‘cheap reliable energy’, getting Britain building again and ‘building a small state that works, not a big state that fails.’
Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch will also focus on slashing the role of the state, saying it is time to dismantle the ‘bureaucratic class’ she says has paralysed Britain.
She will warn that the Tories failed to unpick the ‘Blair-Brown framework of ever-increasing social, economic and legal control’, saying: ‘The truth is the Left never left.’
Mrs Badenoch will also launch a defence of wealth creation and promise a renewed focus on removing the barriers to growth and celebrating entrepreneurship.
‘The Conservatives have to be the party of wealth creation,’ she will say. ‘Wealth is not a dirty word. It supports jobs and families. It pays for our schools, for our health service. We should encourage it.’
Mr Tugendhat will make a wider appeal to disaffected Tory supporters who deserted the party at the last election, vowing to make them ‘proud to vote Conservative again’.
‘If you went to Reform. I want to show you the Conservative values we share,’ he will say. ‘If you went to the Lib Dems. I want you to see the opportunities only we can deliver. If you went to Labour. I want to show you why freedom, not state control, is how we build.’
All four candidates are also expected to set out their plans to rebuilding the image of a party which was comprehensively rejected by the electorate.
Mr Jenrick and Mr Cleverly yesterday publicly called for the contest to be cut short by a week to allow the new leader to respond to the Budget on October 30. Mr Jenrick said the new leader had to be in place to ‘sock it to’ Rachel Reeves.
Both men, who were quizzed on the main stage in front of activists yesterday, indicated they would vote against legalising assisted dying, with Mr Cleverly describing it as the ‘thin end of the wedge’.
