‘l want to heal the party’

THE Conservative leadership contest must be drawn to an early end so the victor can respond to Labour's first Budget, Robert Jenrick has said after making it through to the final stage of voting.

The leadership hopeful issued a challenge to Conservative Party headquarters which is responsible for running the contest - to bring it to an end before October 30, as he made his first public appearance since he made it through to the final two in the race to succeed Rishi Sunak.

In a speech at the Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Jenrick said he would be the candidate to "heal" the Tories after years of infighting.

But he also signalled his rival, Kemi Badenoch, had not provided a clear vision of what her leadership would look like.

Mr Jenrick denied suggestions there had been vote trading among the different campaigns, after James Cleverly suffered a shock exit in the final round of voting among Tory MPs on Wednesday.