Steerpike

It's the second day of the big Tory leadership interviews at party conference and Robert Jenrick is on the main stage. Making his case for why he should be elected leader of the Conservative party, the former minister slammed the state of the Home Office as being 'in ashes', promised he would 're-enact' a version of the Rwanda scheme if he were to become Prime Minister and said he 'would like' to cut the top rate of tax. How interesting... But it wasn't just domestic policy that the Tory leadership contender discussed this afternoon. In a rather, er, amusing announcement, Jenrick revealed that his daughter's middle name is 'Thatcher' – in a touching tribute to the former PM. Talk about commitment to the cause, eh?

It’s day three of the Conservative party conference, and so far the blue-on-blue has been kept to a minimum — not least thanks to the ‘yellow card’ threat, Mr S is sure. But one Tory grandee and former MP isn’t holding back on his thoughts on the future of his party following a disastrous election result — and Jacob Rees-Mogg had some firm words for Kemi Badenoch in particular…  In conversation with the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast this morning, Rees-Mogg first criticised the four leadership contenders for not focusing enough on issues like net zero or the economy, before slamming his party’s ’appalling failure’ on immigration over the last 14 years.

As the Tory leadership hustings continue, there's a bit of good news for outgoing boss Rishi Sunak. It now transpires that more people prefer Sunak's government to Sir Keir Starmer's Labour lot, according to polling by More in Common. In yet another blow for Starmer, the survey found the new government was less popular than Sunak's by two points, with the current Prime Minister not yet being three months into the job. It's hardly the best start... More in Common quizzed 2,080 people on their thoughts on the governments of late. 31 per cent preferred Sunak's boys in blue, with 29 per cent logging their support for Sir Keir.

To Birmingham, where the Conservative party conference is in full swing. As well as the formal leadership hustings taking place this week, the four rivals vying for the top job are busy behind the scenes trying to convince their colleagues – and membership – to back them. Robert Jenrick staged his latest rally bright and early on Monday morning, treating attendees to breakfast, mountains of merchandise (including printed copies of the Jenrick Post) and the dulcet tones of, er, Avicii. But that wasn't all – the Tory frontrunner couldn't quite resist taking a pop at Sir Keir Starmer's crowd either... Launching into his speech, Jenrick blasted the rather gloomy attitude that underpinned the lefty lot's Liverpool conference last weekend.

All is not well in the Labour party. Not only is Sir Keir still dealing with the freebie fiasco, Starmer also lost a longtime MP last week after she quit the party. Rosie Duffield left Labour with a bang, penning a scathing letter that blasted the 'sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice' existing among the lefty lot, telling the Prime Minister: 'I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.' Shots fired... And now renowned writer JK Rowling has waded into the matter.

There's an oddly upbeat mood here at Tory party conference in Birmingham. You might have thought that with just 121 MPs left, the Conservatives would be fairly despondent about their future. But it seems that the bromide of the leadership election has helped assuage such feelings. After all, who can be miserable when there are endless invites to rallies and much merchandise to be purloined? Yet Mr S has a big bucket of cold water to douse on Tories rousing from their conference hangovers this morning. Savanta has done some polling for The Spectator and it looks like the future of the party is not looking too peachy.