Top Tories turn on Jenrick after claims SAS are ‘killing terrorists’ – live

Green candidates could thwart the Tories in council elections next year, a senior councillor has said.

At the Conservative Party’s conference in Birmingham, Phil Broadhead told activists that voters had “got a lot of their anger out of their system” at July’s general election.

The Conservative Councillors’ Association chairman described Nigel Farage’s Reform UK as a potential threat to his party’s electoral success in May 2025, but added that Green Party candidates have won victories in “posh Tory areas”.

He said: “We have a lot of issues that are kind of cross-party nowadays, you know, environmental issues, for instance. I know that there are some people that are on the kind of opposite side of it.

“But I can tell you, being out there in communities, travelling around the country as we did for the general election, this is a huge issue and actually politically we’re talking a lot about the threats, and who knows what the threats might be when they manifest themselves in May, but of Reform etc.

“I’m more worried about the Greens actually.”

Tom Tugendhat garnered a large crowd in the middle of the exhibition hall at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, handing out caps which read ‘I’m a Tugend-hat’ to supporters, my colleague Millie Cooke reports.

The Tory leadership contender addressed the cheering crowd before handing out the ‘Team Tom’ branded merchandise.

Former business secretary Jacob-Rees Mogg has said the Tories were too influenced by focus groups and opinion polls in government.

“The answer I was often given by people in government at the time was that lockdowns were very popular,” he told The Telegraph.

“They were getting 60, 70, 80% popularity ratings in the opinion polls. But you mustn’t believe those opinion polls, they’re basically nonsense.

“People want to give the worthy answer. You’ve got to recognise that government by focus group, government by opinion poll, doesn’t work. You need to govern by what you believe in …

“That’s what Margaret Thatcher did and I think we were much too seduced by government by focus group, government by opinion poll.”

In the run up to the 2024 general election, most opinion polls predicted Mr Mogg to lose his North East Somerset seat. He did, in fact, lose his seat to Labour’s Dan Norris.

These are just some of the Conservative leadership candidate’s merchandise available at the party conference in Birmingham.

The Independent took a closer look at the products on offer from the four hopefuls wanting to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.

The contest is set to go from four to two in the next fortnight, and then members will have their final choice in the run-off.

While the merchandise may not truly swing votes, it does give an indication of the strength of each campaign team.

Watch the full video here.

Read the full report from my colleague Millie Cooke below:

Robert Jenrick has doubled down on his widely criticised claim that UK special forces are “killing rather than capturing terrorists” after a Conservative Party leadership rival accused him of misunderstanding the law of armed conflict.

The frontrunner in the race to replace Rishi Sunak defended as “absolutely correct” his assertion that the British military is taking lethal action because of fears that European laws would free any detained assailants.

Asked on Tuesday whether he could back up the claim, he insisted he could not “elaborate on particular cases”.

Leadership rival Tom Tugendhat said he was “extremely concerned” at Mr Jenrick’s remarks, while fellow contender James Cleverly urged him to justify his statement in media appearances on Tuesday morning.

Mr Jenrick drew condemnation from across the political divide over his claim in a promotional video for his leadership bid that special forces are “killing rather than capturing terrorists because our lawyers tell us that if they are caught the European court will set them free”.

A prominent businessman has named himself as the source of a £75,000 donation to Robert Jenrick amid transparency concerns over the ultimate origin of the funds.

Entrepreneur Phillip Ullmann said he gave the money to the Conservative Party leadership frontrunner through Spott Fitness, a fitness coaching app provider which he said is “part of my family’s group of businesses”.

However, Mr Ullmann’s name does not currently appear on the list of people with significant control in Spott Fitness at Companies House, leaving a question mark over his formal links to the organisation.

The UK elections watchdog has said it is “considering carefully” a letter from Labour demanding an investigation into the source of the money after Mr Jenrick received three donations of £25,000 from the business in July.

Its latest accounts show it has no employees, has never made a profit and has more than £300,000 of debts, and in January it registered a loan from Centrovalli, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.