Tory leader battle ‘too close to call’ as poll of party members shows Kemi Badenoch’s advantage over Robert Jenrick has been slashed to just FOUR points

The Tory leadership battle looks to be too close to call after a poll showed Kemi Badenoch’s advantage with party members narrowing.

A survey of activists by YouGov suggests the shadow housing secretary would win in a run-off against rival Robert Jenrick – but the gap has closed dramatically.

Six weeks ago the firm detected an 18-point margin – 59 per cent to 41 per cent – in favour of Ms Badenoch. But that has now dropped to just four points – 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Conservative members are notoriously hard to poll, but the findings point to a knife-edge result if they end up in the final two. 

Ms Badenoch, Mr Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat have all been making their pitches at Tory conference this week – after the survey was conducted. 

But next week MPs will evict another two contenders, before members make a final decision and the winner is announced on November 2.

Ms Badenoch, who came second behind Mr Jenrick in the most recent Parliamentary vote, has been struggling to move on from comments she made about ‘excessive’ maternity pay in an interview on Sunday.

Yesterday the Tory hopeful said she was being ‘attacked’ and misinterpreted like Margaret Thatcher had been over her ‘no such thing as society’ remark in the 1980s. 

In other developments today:

• Mr Jenrick is under fire for a campaign video suggesting UK special forces kill terrorists instead of capturing them, to avoid the possibility the European Court of Human Rights will force their release;
• Mr Tugendhat has demanded that defence spending is raised to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030;
• Mr Jenrick and Mr Cleverly will take their turn being grilled on the conference stage this afternoon. 

Appearing on the conference stage yesterday, a defiant Ms Badenoch insisted she had not been questioning benefits for mothers – but making a broader point about business regulation and tax.

However, Ms Badenoch also suggested Brits should be less ‘scared’ about whether they can ‘afford’ to have children.  

Stressing her determination to make things more ‘comfortable’ for would-be parents, she said having a family was ‘probably the most meaningful thing that any of us are ever going to do’. 

Allies have complained of a ‘Stop Kemi’ campaign by supporters of rival Robert Jenrick, who seized on her comments yesterday.

Asked about the maternity pay row on stage, Ms Badenoch – who is once said to have quit a job at the Spectator rather than put pressure on the business by taking maternity leave – said: ‘Who remembers ‘there’s no such thing as society’? Everybody remembers…

‘Mrs Thatcher gave an interview to Woman’s Own magazine where she was asked a question and she said there was no such thing as society.

‘She was talking about people wanting government handouts, that there are only individual people and families…

‘And that very good explanation got cut down into a soundbite that was used to attack her. 

‘When you are a leader, when you are a Conservative  when you are making the argument for Conservative principles your opponents are going to try and turn it into something else.

‘We need to decide who is going to be leader of the party, not the Left, not the Guardian, not the BBC, just Conservatives.’ 

Touring broadcast studios this morning, Mr Tugendhat said there was a ‘very clear argument’ that defence spending should be increased towards 3 per cent.

The Tory leadership candidate told LBC: ‘There’s a very, very clear argument that in order protect ourselves to make sure we’re ready for whatever the world throws at us, we need to be increasing defence spending to 3 per cent and investing in technology.’

He added: ‘Frankly, it’s an insurance premium that if we don’t pay, the alternative is more expensive.’

Meanwhile, Mr Cleverly went on the attack against Mr Jenrick over his campaign video claiming that special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists.

The shadow home secretary was asked if he agreed with his competitor in the Tory leadership race Mr Jenrick that the SAS kill rather than capture terrorists to avoid legal challenges.

Touring broadcast studios this morning, Tom Tugendhat said there was a ‘very clear argument’ that defence spending should be increased towards 3 per cent

James Cleverly has gone on the attack against Mr Jenrick over his campaign video claiming that special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists to avoid human rights cases

Mr Cleverly told Sky News: ‘You’re going to have to ask Robert to justify that statement. That’s not something which I have heard.

‘That’s not something which I’m comfortable kind of repeating.

‘As I say, if Robert is able to justify that I think he should.

‘The British military always abide by international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflict.

‘We have, I was about to say some of the most, no, we have the most professional military in the world. Our military do not murder people.’