When asked about women only shortlists, Cleverly rejects the idea of all women and all ethnic-minority shortlists.

He says we need to get more women into parliament, but the lists are not necessary to make that happen - adding that he would never be on an all-ethnic list himself.

Cleverly then accuses Labour of being a "deeply sexist party" for having all-women shortlists, suggesting they either believe people won't vote for a women or no women are good enough.

Cleverly is asked how the Conservatives will become the "party of housebuilding" when many members are against it.

He answers Tory voters "don't say no to building, they say no to building in the wrong place". He says beautiful homes need to be built instead of ugly tower blocks. There is no need to build on the Green Belt, he adds.

Cleverly says he's in favour of cutting the Tory leadership contest short to get the new leader to respond to the government's upcoming budget.

Asked how he plans to bring in the two wings of the Conservative party together, he says he is the unifying candidate in the leadership contest.

He says he's got backers right across the political spectrum and doesn't define himself as being from a particular wing. "We're all one big family", he adds.

We're on to the quickfire Q&A session now.

Cleverly says yes to accepting gifts if he were to become prime minister.

On restoring the winter fuel allowance to pensioners, Cleverly says he will have to "wait and see" how much "damage" Labour has done with the policy.

It's a yes to scrapping Labour's ban on grammar schools.

Would the top rate of tax go? Cleverly says yes.

He says the BBC licence fee is "unsustainable," but does not give a clear answer to whether he would abolish the fee.

Cleverly is asked about comments by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who invoked the legacy of slavery and his ancestors' experience, during a recent visit to the United Nations.

Cleverly says the foreign secretary "made it about him" instead of addressing real concerns about Russia's behaviour in Ukraine. He jokes that Lammy is very proud of being the first black foreign secretary - a reference to his own time in the position.

He says he has criticised the Russian regime "to their face". The Russian foreign minister "stormed out" in response to his criticism, he says.

Cleverly is asked how he would get the NHS to work properly.

He praises the health service and says his mother worked as a midwife.

He goes on to say that we need to get early diagnosis screening and prevention improvements in the future, which will mean reform.

The NHS should be free at point of use, but "freezing it in amber" will ultimately kill it, he says.

Cleverly calls the Reform party a "pale imitation" of the Conservatives. The Tories should not be a "pale imitation of them," he says.

Nigel Farage should not be allowed back into the Tory party, he adds.

"He's not a Tory," Cleverly says. "He wants to destroy our party, he is not one of us."

"This is my family, this is my clan, these are the people I serve," Cleverly says, to loud applause.

Winning back voters who switched to Reform won't happen by "making deals with people who say they want to destroy our party".

Clevely says the Tories allowed legal migration to get "much, much, much too high". But he says that as a minister, he succeeded in cutting net migration by 300,000 per year.

"I get stuff done," he says.

Having concerns about the levels of immigration in the UK is not racist, he adds.

He highlights his background. He says his mum came from west Africa in 1976, quipping that his dad's family came over from northern France in 1066.

Image source, Pool

David Cornock
Reporting from confe

Conservative leadership candidate James Cleverly has taken a swipe at his leadership rival Robert Jenrick's decision to resign from Rishi Sunak's government.

Asked why he didn't quit, Cleverly tells the Tory conference he'd stayed because he wanted to deliver - and, pointedly, didn't want to run away from problems.

He says in the seven months he'd been home secretary he'd reduced migration by 300,000.

Cleverly says Tory members should choose him as leader because he was the only candidate who had run two "great offices of state" and delivered in both of them.

Asked why the Conservatives had lost the election so badly, he says they had "slipped into the habit of trying to talk tough rather than delivering".

The big lesson, he says, was that the Conservatives should promise less but deliver on all their promises to win back the trust of the British people.

Quitting the European Convention of Human Rights is not necessary to deliver on a stricter immigration policy, Cleverly says.

He says “someone outside of our party” has been trying to force the party into having a debate on the convention – a reference to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

He says internal Tory disputes over the policy benefit the Labour party.

Cleverly says the Conservative party lost voters' trust by "talking tough" but failing to deliver.

The party needs to do what it promises, including lowering taxes and reducing regulation.

Cleverly is then asked about illegal migration and the previous government's Rwanda scheme.

Jenrick resigned from government over the plan. Cleverly is asked why he didn't. "I don't run away from problems, I deal with problems," he answers.

Hope asks how many people would now be in Rwanda if the Tories had stayed in government.

Cleverly says "dozens."

"Not a lot is it," Hope quips.

But Cleverly says the point was not to send people to Rwanda, but to stop them coming, using the policy as a deterrent.

James Cleverly is asked why he wants to be Tory leader.

He says the "disastrous election" in July was a turning point. The focus should now be on holding Labour to account to ensure the Conservatives get a chance to return to government, he adds.

"I had to do something," he says.

He says he is the only candidate to have held two great offices of state - meaning the top positions in Cabinet.

Image source, Conservative Party

Jenrick is now leaving the main stage of the conference in Birmingham.

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly is up next answering questions from Tory voters.

Stick with us here and we'll bring you his top lines.

David Cornock
Reporting from conference

Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has criticised the police response to this summer's disturbances.

He tells the party conference in Birmingham: "I think the police certainly gave the appearance of two-tier policing and that's very concerning. I worry that the police at times are too concerned about community relations than enforcing the law without fear or favour."

He adds: "More than the police, I think there is two tier politics where some of our political leaders are so afraid to confront these issues that they are silent on them."

He accuses the prime minister of being fast to call out far-right thuggery but too slow and squeamish to call out violence by "sectarian gangs".

Fewer than a quarter of Conservative MPs in Parliament are women, Hope points out. Should women-only shortlists be brought back?

No, Jenrick quickly and firmly responds. He says he does not want people to think a woman MP is in that position is because the system made it happen.

He says it is a "stain" on his party that they have gone backwards in the number of female MPs.

For context, women only shortlists means there are particular constituencies where parties will select their candidate for MP from a list of women.

On housing, Jenrick says "we got to get Britain building" to ensure young people get on the property ladder.

He argues it is now an "existential battle for the party," as young voters are being driven away from the Tories. But he says new housing should be in line with preserving British heritage and the idea of "green and pleasant lands".

Image source, Conservative Party

Jenrick is now being asked questions submitted by the audience.

Steven from Bristol asks Jenrick about the upcoming Labour budget.

Jenrick calls Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, "unimaginative". He says her measures will not grow the economy.

He says he will fight for pensioners who have had their winter fuel payments removed, small businesses who face inheritance tax, farmers and investors who think capital gains tax might be raised and pubs worried about the smoking ban.

Jenrick adds that it is a "bad decision" that the next party leader won't be opposing Reeves as the budget is announced, because the winner will not have been decided by then.

Jenrick is now being asked some quickfire questions.

Yes to restoring winter fuel allowance for pensioners.

No to restoring hereditary peers in the House of Lords.

Yes to scrapping the ban on new grammar schools. This one is met with a lot of applause by the audience.

A soft no to scrapping the top rate of income tax, saying that it's not a priority.

Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? Jenrick leans towards Trump but says he has respect for Harris and would work productively and constructively with whoever is the next US president.

Jenrick is challenged on his support for Remain during the Brexit referendum.

Asked whether it was a mistake, he admits he was concerned about Britain being able to "harness the opportunities" of leaving the European Union.

But he says the government now has the chance to seize the benefits of Brexit, including curbing migration levels and creating a more liberal immigration model to the ones EU member states have in place.

He apologises to voters on behalf of the party for delays in delivering the results of the referendum. Brexit offers the UK the chance to be more innovative and nimble, he says.

David Cornock
Reporting from party conference

Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has defended on his claim that UK special forces are killing ratherthan capturing terrorists because of human rights laws.

He maintains he was advancing a similar argument to that put forward by former Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace.

The former immigration minister told the Tory conference that securing the UK's borders meant leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.

"I don't want our human rights apparatus to be standing in the way of taking the right operational decisions for our national security and for protecting the lives of the brave men and women who serve in our special forces.

"A party like ours has to stand for ending illegal migration and the only way to do that is to get rid of this arsenal of laws that are used by illegal migrants to frustrate their removal from our country."

He says the court couldn't be ignored or reformed. "It is in essence, leave or remain. I'm for leave."