Brian Wheeler

A bit of call and response to wake the audience from Tugendhat.

“Good morning conference!” he says.

Brian Wheeler

A few oohs from the audience as a box is brought on to the stage and the lectern is removed.

Is Tom Tugendhat going to speak without notes like David Cameron?

Tom Tugendhat is now taking to the stage after a brief introduction from the opposition chief whip and a promo video.

Stick with us as we bring you his main points.

Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly has just walked into the Tory conference alongside his wife Susannah.

We're expecting to hear his speech to Conservative members after Tom Tugendhat.

Peter Barnes
BBC political analyst

Conference is an opportunity for party members to meet the leadership candidates and see them perform. And once Conservative MPs have whittled down the candidates to the last two, members will make the final choice.

But do we have any idea which of the candidates they prefer?

Polls and surveys of party members are difficult to do – even harder than normal vote intention polls – so they need to be treated with a lot of caution. We don't even know exactly how many members there are. The last time the Conservatives selected a new leader, two years ago, there were 172,000.

There also haven’t been that many polls during the leadership election – and those there have been haven’t all said the same thing. However, overall, Kemi Badenoch has tended to be in the lead in most polls and surveys.

But both YouGov and the Conservative Home website have suggested, in the last few days, that Robert Jenrick, in second place, has closed the gap. James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat tend to be further back. It’s possible, of course, that conference could change members’ minds.

Chris Mason
Political editor, reporting from Birmingham

Image source, Getty Images

For a party that was so thoroughly rejected by the voting public in July's general election, the mood at the Conservative Party conference is surprisingly upbeat.

Part of this may be relief at being freed from the burden of governing.

"It’s all going horribly wrong but it’s no longer our fault!" said one Tory figure.

“You’d have thought this would have been a wake, but it’s much better than that,” said a senior party official.

Sir Keir Starmer's early missteps and difficulties in office are also a source of great joy for some here in Birmingham.

“Turns out they’re finding out governing is difficult,” said a former minister with a barely concealed smile.

After enduring years of taunts from Labour about cronyism and sleaze, it's now the Tories' turn to make the jokes. Sir Keir Starmer's expensive eyewear has supplied many a punchline in speeches.

And the leadership contest that is dominating the conference has, for once, put party members at the heart of the action.

Tory conferences can sometimes feel a bit soulless. When the party was in government, the activists were in danger of being outnumbered by corporate lobbyists.

But many lobbyists have switched their attention to Labour, for now, and are giving Birmingham a miss.

Image source, Getty Images

The 51-year-old has been focussing his campaign on his record of service, first in the British Army with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan then in Parliament as MP for Tonbridge since 2015.

He has urged the party to work on winning back the trust of voters after it repeatedly "failed" to deliver on its promises.

Tugendhat suggests a solid economic strategy will be key to bringing back members who backed Reform and the Lib Dems in July’s election.

On immigration, he says he wants to introduce a legally-binding annual net migration cap of 100,000.

To help achieve his goal, he says he would like to reform aspects of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and outright leave parts of it.

Tugendhat is broadly seen as a moderate candidate - but his campaign has shown little restraint when it comes to the gadgets they brought to the conference. Tugend-tan anyone?

We've just spotted Tom Tugendhat on his way to the last day of the Conservative Party conference. He'll be first up to speak on the main stage, which we're expecting to kick off at 10:45 BST.

After addressing the party conference one last time today, the four remaining Tory leadership hopefuls will face another round of voting to whittle down candidates to just two on 9 and 10 October.

Some of the candidates have expressed a desire to shorten the race to ensure the new leader can respond to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget on 30 October.

But if the contest goes ahead as planned, party members will vote between 15 and 31 October on which of the final two they want to lead the Tories.

The new leader will then be announced on 2 November.

To learn more about how the Tory leadership works, our colleagues at BBC Politics have put together a handy guide.

The four Conservative leadership candidates are gearing up for their final chance to address Tory activists at the party's conference in Birmingham.

Each one will speak from the main stage for up to 20 minutes, with Tom Tugendhat first up at 1045. Next will be James Cleverly, then Robert Jenrick and finally Kemi Badenoch.

Each speech will be preceded by a two-minute introductory video.

Image source, Getty

Today is the last chance for the remaining Tory leadership contestants to address members at the party conference in Birmingham.

After the two initial selection rounds, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are now battling it out to bring the Conservatives back from the brink after the party's heavy defeat in this summer's election.

They will likely address a wide range of issues including migration, the economy and public services.

All four previously had the chance to make their case for the top job in one-hour long "in conversation" style panels on day two and day three of the conference.

Image source, Reuters

On Monday, leadership hopefuls Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat answered questions from Conservative members.

Tugendhat used his speech to argue for lower taxes, reforming the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), growing the economy and abolishing VAT on private school fees.

Badenoch told attendees she plans to get spending under control, reform the NHS and deregulate the housebuilding industry.

And on Tuesday, Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly did the same.

Jenrick doubled down on his commitment to quit the ECHR and defended claims suggesting British forces are killing terrorists instead of capturing them.

Cleverly said the Rwanda scheme could have worked and said he doesn't think leaving the ECHR is necessary.

Nathan Williams
Live page editor

Image source, Reuters

Welcome back to our live coverage on the final day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

The four Tory leadership hopefuls will all appear on the stage through the morning to give their pitches to party members explaining why they should become the next leader.

Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly are likely to touch on a wide range of issues including the party's future, migration, the economy and public services.

Tory MPs will whittle the contenders down to the final two next week, and then it will be over to the party members to decide who will be crowned Conservative leader.

Stick with us as we bring you all the latest.

Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly kept members glued to their seats for a nearly two hours, addressing questions on the a wide range of issues facing the party. Here's a brief summary of the main points the pair discussed:

• General election loss: both candidates agreed the party needs to change to reclaim the trust of voters and rebuild its credibility
• Immigration: the pair also said there is a need for stricter regulations. Jenrick said he wants net migration to get back to historic lows while Cleverly extolled the benefits of the Rwanda scheme
• ECHR: Jenrick doubled down on his commitment to quit the convention and defended claims suggesting SAS are killing terrorists instead of capturing them. Cleverly didn't comment on Jenrick's remarks but said he doesn't think leaving the ECHR is necessary

Jenrick and Cleverly, alongside fellow candidates Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch, will make leadership speeches to Tory conference in Birmingham tomorrow.

They'll then face a new round of Tory MP voting on 9 and 10 October to pick the final two contestants, who will then be put to Conservative Party members to choose between.

The final result is due on 2 November, although several of the four contenders have called for it to be brought forward so they winner can respond to the government's budget next month.

We'll be ending our coverage of the third day of the conference shortly. For the curious, our colleagues at BBC Politics have put together this guide about exactly how the leadership election process works.

Peter Barnes
BBC political analyst

Conference is an opportunity for party members to meet the leadership candidates and see them perform. And once Conservative MPs have whittled down the candidates to the last two, members will make the final choice.

But do we have any idea which of the candidates they prefer?

Polls and surveys of party members are difficult to do – even harder than normal vote intention polls – so they need to be treated with a lot of caution. We don't even know exactly how many members there are. The last time the Conservatives selected a new leader, two years ago, there were 172,000.

There also haven’t been that many polls during the leadership election – and those there have been haven’t all said the same thing. However, overall, Kemi Badenoch has tended to be in the lead in most polls and surveys.

But both YouGov and the Conservative Home website have suggested, in the last few days, that Robert Jenrick, in second place, has closed the gap. James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat tend to be further back. It’s possible, of course, that conference could change members’ minds.

Hannah Miller
Reporting from conference

The debate over whether the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights has become a central dividing line in the race for the Conservative Party leadership, with some senior figures suggesting it is dominating too much of the conversation.

But the issue is catnip for some Conservative members, who will have the final say in this contest.

On the main stage this afternoon, Robert Jenrick was applauded as he repeated his pledge to withdraw from the ECHR. He has made the promise a central plank of his campaign, saying it is a necessary step to secure the country’s borders.

Tom Tugendhat has said the UK should be “prepared” to leave, but should try to reform the treaty first.

Kemi Badenoch hasn’t ruled out leaving, but has warned it may not be effective and could lead to Brexit-style “legal-wrangling”.

Meanwhile James Cleverly has dismissed the idea of leaving as one that has been pushed by Nigel Farage, implying it is an attempt to divide the party. He believes it is not necessary to leave the ECHR in order to restore his policy of deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda.

But despite all the debate, there are plenty of former Conservative MPs who believe this row is not a central issue for voters. Some have even suggested the party is "doomed" if they continue to focus on this issue.

Did Jenrick oversee an 80% deportation increase?published at 16:20 British Summer Time 1 October

16:20 BST 1 October

By Tamara Kovacevic

Speaking earlier, Robert Jenrick said: "I also got the number of people being deported from our country up 80%"

He's correct.

In October-December 2022, the first three months that Jenrick served as immigration minister, 1,017 people with no right to stay in the were UK removed, according to Home Office figures, external.

This rose to 1,907 a year later (October-December 2023), an 88% increase.

This figure only includes enforced removals. If voluntary removals are included too, total deportations increased by 71% (from 4,306 to 7,367).

In previous years, the number has been much higher. Between 2010 and 2015, for example, about 40,000 people departed the UK each year - but the number has declined since 2016.

Removals have risen since the pandemic, but are still below the 2017 level.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent, reporting from the conference

This has been generally quite a friendly leadership contest so far.

In the intensity of this multi-day mega-hustings, though, that comradely spirit is starting to fray.

I’ve just been speaking to Tom Tugendhat, and I asked him about Robert Jenrick’s claim that special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists because of European human rights laws.

Tugendhat said he was "angry" at Jenrick’s "terrible suggestion".

The former soldier said that Jenrick “does not understand the armed forces of the United Kingdom" and has "a fundamental lack of awareness of military operations, the command chain, and the nature of the law in the armed forces".

In the earliest days of this leadership contest Bob Blackman, who as chairman of the 1922 committee is overseeing the rules, said there would be a "yellow card" system in place for candidates who attack one of their rivals.

He hasn’t publicly issued any yellow cards yet, but much more of this and the referee might soon be reaching for his pocket.

Hannah Miller
Reporting from conference

James Cleverly appeared to win more applause and laughter from the audience than his leadership rival Robert Jenrick during this afternoon’s interviews on the main stage - but will that translate into much-needed votes?

It is Jenrick who is ahead among MPs according to the results of the latest ballot, with another round of voting due to take place next week. That will reduce the number of candidates to two, and members will have the final say on the leader.

Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat took part in Q&A sessions yesterday, and tomorrow all four candidates will make speeches on the main stage.

Many at this conference believe the outcome of the race remains highly unpredictable.

After a thunderous applause, James Cleverly walks off the stage, as he finishes his hour-long questioning.

Both he and Robert Jenrick earlier were attempting to win votes in the four-way battle to become the next Conservative leader.

Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch had their own opportunity to face a grilling from GB News political editor Christopher Hope yesterday - and all four will be giving speeches tomorrow.

It's been an intense few hours, so stay tuned for some final analysis and round-up of some key themes.