Image source, PA Media

We are bringing our coverage of the Conservative conference to a close soon.

It has been days of promises from leadership hopefuls Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat.

And today they delivered their final speeches on stage in Birmingham, each setting our why they should be chosen as the new Tory leader.

Tugendhat told audiences the party needs to get voters back from all parties, and gain trust. He also promised a "new Conservative revolution".

A leader who can "deliver from day one" is what Cleverly called himself. He said the Tories need to focus on the NHS, reducing migration, and building.

Jenrick jabbed at Labour, but also said his party "must never fail" the people again. He called for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, end "mad" net zero targets, and secure borders.

And up last was Badenoch, who said she wants "renewal" for Britain and that she will fight for her country. The Tories must "be the party of wealth creation", she added.

Now the four hopefuls face a vote from their 121 MPs on 9 and 10 October to choose the final two. A leader will then be picked by party members, to be announced on 2 November.

That is it from us today, but if you want more, you can read our main article.

You can also visit our Conservative conference area on the website.

This page was edited by Nathan Williams, Dulcie Lee and Adam Durbin.

Your writers were Rachel Flynn, Rorey Bosotti, Chas Geiger, Sam Francis and Imogen James.

Sam Francis
Reporting from the conference

Sir Graham Brady’s new book Kingmaker was the big seller at conference this year.

Normally a shadowy figure working behind the scenes in the backrooms of Parliament, as chair of the Tory Backbench 1922 committee, he is now highly in demand as a sage on the state of the party’s leadership.

Waterstones said he timed the release of the book "perfectly" - going on sale in the week leading up to the conference.

"People were looking for a big central figure during the leadership contest - which is split between the four candidates," one Waterstones worker said.

He drove interest during several book signings, but the book outsold all the others in between the signings "organically".

The second biggest seller was Lord Ashcroft’s postmortem of the 2024 election defeat, Losing It.

Sam Francis
Reporting from the conference

An hour after the speeches finished and James Cleverly is the last candidate still in the conference centre.

He’s doing interviews and taking photos with supporters - clearly trying keep the momentum of his performance going.

In the conference floor there seems to be an emerging consensus that Cleverly's speech was the best, and by the looks of it he agrees.

Sam Francis
Reporting from the conference

While the leadership candidates’ speeches were under way, staff began quietly dismantling the conference.

There were notably fewer corporate stalls at this year's conference - the party’s first out of power in 14 years.

The extensive security setup and complex wiring for the tech in the stalls mean deconstructing it will take hours, if not days.

Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight

As we journalists settled into the seats reserved for us at the Conservative Party conference two recent additions to our ranks joined us.

Michael Gove, the incoming editor of the Spectator, and George Osborne, the presenter of the Political Currency podcast, sat with us high up in the gallery a long way from a stage they once graced.

David Cameron’s former education secretary and former chancellor were in the hall to see whether one of the four candidates could pull off the trick of their old (and former in the case of Gove) friend. That was to deliver a knockout leadership speech that changes the contours of the contest.

After the speech the two were filmed giving their assessment of the various speeches. They were then joined by their friend and Times columnist, the Conservative peer Lord Finkelstein.

The journalistic trade is not so new for Gove. He was a journalist (and former colleague of mine) on the Times before his election to Parliament in 2005.

Osborne dipped his toe in journalism in the early 1990s but sadly didn’t make the grade on the Times graduate training scheme as this member of the class of 1990 enjoys reminding him. He did go on to edit the London Evening Standard between 2017 and 2020.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from Birmingham

James Cleverly seems to have made the biggest impression on Conservative members streaming out of the hall.

Jackie Allen tells me: "I was a Kemi fan. I’m still a Kemi fan. I think she has spoken out on things people have been too frightened to say for too long but I think Cleverly, overall, probably had the best speech."

"He was prime ministerial, that’s the important thing. They all have good messages but Cleverly is prime ministerial," her husband Steve adds

Steve says he had also been a Badenoch supporter when he arrived at the conference but Cleverly "was the one that time-after-time convinced me that he’s the man".

Shivaj Ghosh agrees with the couple, telling me he thinks Cleverly "just had the presence", adding that they were all very good but the shadow home secretary "just had the edge".

"The Parliamentarians get to decide who the final two are so I really didn’t have an opinion but coming in and watching the speakers I really hope he is in the final two," Shivaj says.

Colin Noble says he thinks "James won it today".

But he adds: "I’m very open-minded about it, I know all four of them, they all have strengths and weaknesses."

Offshore wind not to blame for energy pricespublished at 13:36 British Summer Time 2 October

13:36 BST 2 October

By Mark Poynting

Robert Jenrick talked about rising energy prices, which he said had caused factories to close and families to suffer.

“This is all because we have become so reliant on expensive forms of energy like offshore wind,” he said.

This is not true.

In the UK, electricity prices are usually determined by the price of gas.

For this reason, when gas prices spiked in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, electricity prices rose sharply as well.

While offshore wind was relatively expensive in the 2000s and early 2010s, it has generally been getting cheaper since.

As a result, the National Infrastructure Commission said last year, external that the “cost of renewable electricity, through offshore wind, onshore wind and solar, is lower and less volatile than producing electricity with natural gas”.

The government’s independent advisers, the Climate Change Committee, have also said that the most effective long-term way to cut energy bills is to move away from fossil fuels.

Did Cleverly reduce net migration by 300,000 people a year?published at 13:27 British Summer Time 2 October

13:27 BST 2 October

By Tamara Kovacevic

In his remarks to Tory conference, James Cleverly talked about net migration and told the audience in Birmingham: "I got it down by 300,000 people a year."

Cleverly was home secretary from 13 November 2023 to 5 July 2024.

Last December, he announced measures - implemented this year - which he promised would cut net migration by 300,000.

But we can’t say whether he achieved that, because the official net migration figures for 2024, which are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are not available yet.

Net migration - the number of people coming into the country planning to stay for at least a year, minus the number of people leaving for at least a year - reached a record high of 764,000 in 2022 and fell back slightly to 685,000 last year.

The ONS has not announced the date it will publish the next set of figures but when it does, they will cover the 12 months to the end of June 2024.

It’s not Tugendhat’s first leadership campaignpublished at 13:17 British Summer Time 2 October

13:17 BST 2 October

By Anthony Reuben

We have been examining some of the claims made by the four candidates, and the first up to be fact-checked is Tom Tugendhat.

In his speech earlier, he told Conservative party members: “My mission is to win the next general election, and I have never failed a mission yet.”

It’s worth remembering that this is not Tugendhat's first leadership election.

He stood in 2022 to replace Boris Johnson and came in fifth place - beaten by Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt and Kemi Badenoch.

Now all four final Tory leadership contenders to have finished their pitches to the party faithful, here's a brief summary of what they said:

Tom Tugendhat: Referring often to his military career, he said he knows what leadership demands. He spoke of the party generating broad appeal to claw back Reform, Lib Dem and even Labour voters, and promised a cap on net migration of 100,000.

James Cleverly: Much of the shadow home secretary's speech focused on experience - particularly his ministerial record. He called for a party of "free markets and freedom" and thanked the NHS for saving his wife's life after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. He also said the country needs to "build, build, build".

Robert Jenrick: He repeated calls for the UK to leave European Convention on Human Rights to "secure our borders" and promises a freeze in net migration. He also said the Tories must end the "mad" target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

Kemi Badenoch: She went big on identity politics and said women need Tories to defend them. She said the party did not always defend Conservative values in government like low taxes and low migration, which she says she would defend as Tory leader.

Image source, PA Media

All four candidates have now delivered their pitches on why they would make the best Tory leader to the party's annual conference in Birmingham.

They are likely to keep campaigning behind the scenes once this year's party conference concludes for good later today.

Tugendhat, Cleverly, Jenrick and Badenoch will have to wait until next week to find out whether their efforts were enough to survive the final stage of the leadership contest.

The 121 Tory MPs in the House of Commons will vote on 9 and 10 October to whittle down the candidate list to just two.

Then Conservative Party members will have until 31 October to cast their own vote to select Rishi Sunak's successor. The winner is currently due to be revealed on 2 November.

Brian Wheeler

A show of unity at the end of the conference as the four contenders return to the stage.

Some in the audience had already headed for the exit but there is still a standing ovation.

And now - the national anthem.

Brian Wheeler

The audience was caught on the hop by the abrupt ending to Badenoch’s speech.

They rose to cheer and applaud her but she did not hang around to soak up their acclaim.

Image source, Reuters

Government needs to be the servant of the market, Badenoch continues.

She promises to "help people shoot for the stars", to help a new generation build homes and families - and to "take the shackles off the economy".

She wants a Britain where people find a shared identity, she adds.

Badenoch ends by saying she wants a country “where people can be committed to each other irrespective of their religion or what they look like”.

A Britain that is “friends with its neighbours but will always proudly protect its national interests”.

This will be a “Britain at ease with itself, a Britain that believes in itself”.

That sort of Britain “can only come about because of renewed conservative principles”

“The time to start that renewal is right now,” she says.

And that’s it. She leaves the stage to huge applause.

Badenoch says she's sad, but excited by the opportunity, of being in opposition.

"We are going to have fun," she says, speaking of making prime minister Starmer "sweat".

Back to what the party needs to do, Badenoch says the Tories have to take hold of the opportunities these years in opposition offer.

She says the party has the chance to make the 2030s a "golden decade" for the country by delivering on growth the people can feel.

The party has to renew its commitment to family, sovereignty, capitalism and personal responsibility. Government has to "get out of the way" and let business freer to secure the growth Britain needs.

Image source, PA Media

Unlike the left, Badenoch says, "we know right from wrong".

She says Gordon Brown's Treasury rules and Tony Blair's legal system "never left" - and now it is time to change the way the state works.

Ministers need to be able to make decisions that can not be challenged in courts, she adds.

Addressing the Conservative leadership debate over the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) she says her plans go "far beyond our relationship with the EU or the ECHR."

Badenoch says "we will rewire, reboot and reprogram", adding that she is an engineer and "engineers do not hide from the truth."

This work however, cannot be from "one woman" she says, and it has to be a "team that goes way beyond Westminster."

She says they are a "conservative movement," not a "clique".

"I do not like to fight, but I am not afraid to fight," Badenoch adds.

Brian Wheeler

One or two whoops from the audience as Badenoch talks about identity politics and Conservative values. The audience like this.

She goes on to say "women need us too" to defend their rights as she extolls her record against controversial policies.

Badenoch argues she campaigned hard to ensure women's voices challenging gender inclusiveness were heard.

"It wasn't until SNP put a sex offender in a women's prison that we won the argument," she says.

The Conservatives are elected to conserve what is great, she adds - a comment which draws vocal approval from the hall.

"We must not be afraid to get involved when a teacher went into hiding from Islamist thugs, or girls were groomed in Rochdale," she says.

Badenoch turns to identity politics, which she says she's been fighting her "whole career".

She argues this "new politics" has made people afraid, noting that young Conservatives are scared to share their beliefs.

"We need to give them a party they can be proud of," she says, which receives a loud round of applause.

Badenoch says in government the Conservatives “did not always keep our promises”.

She said: “We promised to lower taxes - they went up. We promised to lower immigration -it went up.”

Badenoch says this was because the Treasury told them “high immigration was good for the economy”.

“But we knew it was not good for our country,” she adds. “And we did not always defend our values.”

"Economics is not just some technical exercise," Badenoch goes on to say. "It's how we help the poorest in society".

She reflects on what she calls the "golden age of wealth creation", which she says the Tories gave the UK in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.

She says the party has to "be the party of wealth creation", and needs to "stop being afraid of defending our beliefs."