Conservative Party Conference LATEST: Leadership candidates prepare for keynote speeches as Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch battle for Tory crown

Leadership hopeful and the former Home and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will pledge to bring back ‘Conservatism with a smile’ in his speech to party members later this morning.

The MP is expected to tell delegates to stop ‘being the grumpy party’ following the worst-ever modern election defeat for the Tories earlier this year.

He will instead tell conference attendees to be ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘positive’ as Labour’s opposition.

Former MP and Boris Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries has called for Kemi Badenoch to be disqualified from the Tory leadership race.

Ms Dorries argued the party needed a leader who was ‘non-confrontational’, and accused her of ‘plotting to remove a sitting prime minister.’

Speaking at a More in Common event last night, Ms Dorries said: ‘We all know how the [media] feel about Kemi Badenoch, don’t we? I’d be deeply concerned.

‘I think you need to have to be non-confrontational. I think you need to have demonstrated that you were loyal when you served in government.

‘I think if you are someone who plotted to remove a sitting prime minister, you should automatically be disqualified.’

A YouGov survey has suggested that polls are tightening and the commanding lead enjoyed by Kemi Badenoch among Tory activists has decreased dramatically.

The poll found that the former business secretary is now just three points ahead of Mr Jenrick, down from 18 points in July, at 27 and 24 points respectively.

James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat are tied on 16 points each, but with 17 percent of activists still not knowing who they would most like to be leader, the contest is all to play for.

Earlier, we brought you an update on the row engulfing the Tory party conference over a video accusing the SAS of killing terrorists instead of detaining them.

Watch Tom Tugendhat’s comments in full here:

The final four Tory leader contenders will make their big pitches to the party faithful today.

The candidates are all giving speeches as the conference in Birmingham wraps up – with the race looking too close to call.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are seen as the front runners after topping the ballot of MPs. But Ms Badenoch has been struggling to quell a spat over suggesting maternity pay is ‘excessive’.

And Mr Jenrick is facing a furious backlash from his rivals over a campaign video in which he claimed British forces were killing terrorists rather than capturing them to dodge European human rights rules.

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat – another candidate – retorted that Mr Jenrick ‘knows nothing’ about sensitive military issues.

Kemi Badenoch has said people who want to move to the UK need to be ‘very committed’, adding the country is ‘not a dormitory’.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about immigration, Ms Badenoch said: ‘What we did previously was just leave the Home Office to look at people coming in and out, but we need to make sure that when people are coming to this country they are people who are coming to contribute and also who want the success of our country.

Of course there will be others who are passing through, like student visas, for example, but if people want to stay here, we live in an age where you need to be very committed: we are not a dormitory, we’re not a sponge.

I’m somebody who came to this country at 16 and I did so wanting to be here, wanting to be from here, so culture matters.

James Cleverly has suggested he would pledge to axe stamp duty if elected leader in order to help the economy ‘thrive’.

Asked if he would pledge to slash the tax, the Conservative former minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme stamp duty ‘stagnates the market’.

He added: ‘At the last general election, my party – the Conservative Party – was being criticised by the Labour Party for taxing too much.

‘If we don’t start cutting taxes, we stifle the economy and we will ultimately not be able to thrive as a country.’

When put to him that the measure was explored by Liz Truss in her short tenure as prime minister, Mr Cleverly replied: ‘Your argument is because one of my predecessors proposed it, we can never propose it?

‘This is why we have now got the highest tax burden since the war. Higher than many of our international competitors and high enough that the Labour Party felt liberated to criticise us.’

Tom Tugendhat has said the use of footage of a British soldier in Afghanistan who died shortly afterwards in a controversial video by rival Robert Jenrick is ‘upsetting’.

Mr Jenrick had already sparked controversy with the video, which saw him claim British troops are ‘killing’ terrorists instead of detaining them due to ECHR red tape.

Mr Tugendhat said the claims were fundamentally ‘untrue’, and told BBC Newsnight the clip had featured a friend of his who was killed shortly after the footage was taken.

He said: ‘What’s particularly upsetting is that video is using a piece of footage of some of the people I served with, one of whom there died shortly after that film was taken in an accident.

‘And he’s not able to defend himself from the accusation that is being levelled against him. That’s footage of a soldier in northern Afghanistan in around 2002.’

He added he would ‘take the video down’.

All eyes are on the Tory leadership candidates this morning as they gear up for keynote speeches later this morning.

Rivals Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch will all take to the stage from 10:45am and deliver 20-minute pitches to MPs andparty members.

After the conference, a final round of voting by MPs will whittle the field down to two candidates, before members elect the new leader.

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live blog as the final day of the Conservative Party conference gets underway.

We will be bringing you all the latest updates from Birmingham as the leadership candidates set out their final pitch to party members.