More from James Cleverly's appearance at a fringe event, where he has been asked for his view of what the worst thing to come out of the Conservatives' 14 years in government was.

The former home secretary replies: “How we responded to Covid”.

“Lockdowns were wrong, we got it badly, badly, badly wrong.” He says the “whole world was scared” but adds: “We turned into all the things that I thought we could never become."

He says the UK went from being a “freedom-loving nation” to “snooping on our neighbours, dobbing in our friends and cancelling Christmas”.

Cleverly also says “we deified certain experts”. He makes the case that epidemiologists “became gods among gods” while experts on domestic abuse, children’s mental health and the economy were “relegated”.

“Let’s never make that error again,” he adds.

Sam Francis
Political reporter, in Birmingham

Alok Mitra describes himself as an “old” and “angry party member”.

“The party let us down with how they behaved in the last parliament” by failing to deliver on immigration promises and mishandling Covid, he tells me.

He says the next Tory party leader needs to “have some guts and do the right thing - rather than being pushed around by the media".

Instead of being “Labour light”, the party could grow its membership by being "courageous and stick to our values - then people will come".

The current party is such a broad church “we’re like a field”, Mitra adds.

Speaking at a fringe event, leadership candidate James Cleverly has said the former government's use of the "Stop the Boats” slogan was an "error".

The phrase refers to the previous Conservative government’s efforts to curb the number of people trying to get to the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats.

Explaining why he thought it was a mistake, Cleverly says it "distilled" a challenging problem “into a soundbite”.

The former home secretary adds that it was an “unachievable target” where even one boat crossing would be deemed “a failure”.

Cleverly will be part of a similar Tory leadership Q&A tomorrow to the one we just reported on, alongside the fourth (and final) contender Robert Jenrick.

Image source, Reuters

Reaching the end of today's session, Badenoch faces a question on the health service. She's asked what her "prescription" for it would be.

“The NHS needs reform,” she replies.

Badenoch says she believes the NHS is an institution of the 20th century, not a contemporary one, and it was designed to serve a younger population, not the older one now.

She says that free-at-the-point-of-use is special in this country and the UK should keep it, but it doesn’t mean the NHS should be treated as a religion.

Instead, it should be seen as a service that needs to meet the country’s current needs.

On the UK's plans to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 to fight the impact of man-made climate change, Badenoch says the target was set without a plan.

"We are Conservatives, of course we want a better environment," she says. "But we also need to make sure that we do so in a way that doesn't bankrupt our country."

"We might review it," Badenoch says. Other countries like India and China have a "far bigger impact than we do," she adds.

Shifting to social policy, Badenoch rejects suggestions she would consider changes to current abortion laws, saying: "I've seen what has happened in the US."

She acknowledges she is "sympathetic" to the introduction of legislation regulating assisted suicide.

"But I do not trust any government or civil service to deliver this," she adds.

On freedom of speech, she says: "I think it's great."

When asked if she would support the new Tory leader if she does not win in November, Badenoch replies, "Yes, 100%."

She reflects on her years serving different prime ministers in former Conservative governments and acknowledges the challenges of leadership. "I don’t want to make their life tougher," she says.

Badenoch emphasises the importance of demonstrating the party's integrity to the public.

She goes on to say the Conservative Party has to focus on the "common ground" to win back support from the British public.

Badenoch adds the country is now "at a point of political crisis", and "we can't give up and let Labour make things worse".

Image source, EPA

Back on her own turf, Badenoch is asked how she would get more homes built in order to address the housing crisis.

The shadow housing secretary identifies what she says are several major obstacles, including the persistent consequences of an "asset bubble" pushing prices up and the "pressure" of growing migration.

The shadow housing minister also notes there is still too much "red tape" interfering with building more homes.

She says she would focus on deregulating the house building industry as well as addressing the impact of "bad builders" on people's ability to buy affordable homes.

David Cornock
Political correspondent

The Conservative leadership candidate, Kemi Badenoch says that, if she was in government, she would restore the winter fuel payments to pensioners – “but not to millionaires”.

She tells the Q&A session at the party’s conference in Birmingham that the Labour government “haven’t really means tested” the payment, describing the current system as “crude”.

Badenoch adds that “the real issue with winter fuel is that we are making energy more expensive, government makes energy more expensive".

"So if it’s doing that then it needs to look after those people who don’t earn enough, or can’t increase their earnings."

Addressing another big debate point for the Tories, Badenoch says the UK should leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) if necessary.

But she notes quitting the convention would not make it easier for the country to deport illegal migrants.

Badenoch instead suggests she would look at how other European countries are managing their migration rates, while still abiding by the rules of the convention to shape new policy.

“Let’s start there. If we need to leave it, then let’s do so but that’s not a strategy," she says. "It’s just one thing, it’s not even that radical. There’s a lot more that we can do."

The shadow housing minister says building new homes is “critical” to winning over potential younger voters.

“We cannot be the party of old people,” Badenoch adds, “We have to be a party for everybody.”

She says the Conservatives are not going to recruit new supporters if "we don’t give them an opportunity to have something".

"We can’t be the party of people who had something and not the party of the people who want to have something. We can do better than that."

Badenoch moves on to her stance on taxation, saying "we have excessive tax, excessive regulation and excessive government interference".

She declines to be drawn into which specific taxes she would axe if elected, but says getting spending under control needs to come before any potential cuts to taxes.

"We need to increase the appetite for risk taking," she says, going on to argue that there are too many businesses that are ultimately never launched "because people think it's too difficult".

Asked whether there should apology over the party's failure to bring down immigration while in government, Badenoch agrees there should be.

She calls for a policy "in the national interest" and says there will need to be a cap on immigration numbers.

There also needs to be a system designed so the cap isn't "manipulated", Badenoch says.

Levels of migration shouldn't just be about the numbers, she adds, but also about "who is coming in, who is leaving, and why that is happening".

Badenoch is asked about the Conservative Party's loss at in July's general election, admitting it is a “historic defeat” and emphasising the need to prevent it happening again.

She suggests the Tories must embrace true conservatism, which she believes is what the country wants.

The shadow housing secretary also stresses the importance of acknowledging mistakes and moving forward.

She also highlights the need for "clarity" and "honesty" in communication, adding that that some politicians resort to "officialese" out of fear of the “gotcha moment”.

Image source, PA Media

Asked whether she is a Tory who wants to cut maternity pay, Badenoch replies: "No. I think maternity pay is quite important."

She says this comment was part of a bigger conversation about the role of the state, following a controversy which began with interview she gave yesterday.

Badenoch asks the audience if they remember Margaret Thatcher's "there is no such thing as society" comment.

"That very good explanation was cut down to a soundbite and used to attack her," Badenoch says, comparing it to this weekend's row.

She says she was interrupted when answering a different question on Times Radio, which she says was about businesses becoming overburdened with regulations and tax.

One of the first questions to Kemi Badenoch is: "How will it feel to be the first black leader of the party?”

"I don’t know, I have never done it before,” she jokes, sparking a burst of laughter from the audience.

But Badenoch goes on to say that while she's "sure it’ll be interesting", she is "somebody who wants the colour of our skin to be no more significant than the colour of our hair or the colour of our eyes".

Away from the leadership hopefuls making their pitch, former-PM Liz Truss was speaking at the Conservative Party conference earlier.

Truss told the audience that the UK is already a socialist country and though Labour doesn't have the "right solutions", the Tories should acknowledge they are partially to blame for current problems.

Watch her comments below:

We are now hearing from fellow leadership contender Kemi Badenoch, stick with us for all the key lines from her Q&A session

David Cornock
Political correspondent

Tom Tugendhat has called for the Tory leadership contest to be brought forward so the new leader can respond to Rachel Reeves’ Budget in October.

By convention, the leader of the opposition responds to the chancellor’s statement. But with the new Tory leader not due to be announced before 2 November, that duty is likely to fall to former-PM Rishi Sunak.

There has been criticism that the leadership election is taking too long, given Sunak announced his decision to step down on 5 July.

Tugendhat tells the Tory conference he would like to respond to the event as it was likely to be “one of the most consequential Budgets”.

He sidestepped a number of questions about tax under a future Conservative government, but said he would repeal the addition of VAT to private school fees.