Robert Jenrick talks Black Country roots as Tory leadership candidates make final pitch

"I grew up just down the road in Wolverhampton," he announced proudly.

Brief silence. A couple of muted cheers. The ice is broken by a few seconds of nervous laughter.

"My dad took a job at the last great iron foundry in the Black Country, a vast Victorian metalworks in Coseley," he continued, much to the amusement of certain sections of the national press. "It was called Cannon, because it made the cannons for Wellington's Army. My dad loved that."

At this point, the chap from one national newspaper could no longer hold in his guffaws.

No such disdain when James Cleverly spoke about 'being a mixed-race kid from south-east London', or when Kemi Badenoch spoke about lying awake at night crime-ridden Lagos. But it seems Mr Jenrick has his work cut out when it comes to getting people to take his back story, of a childhood in the West Midlands seriously.

The four remaining candidates to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader made their case on the final day of the party's conference. It was a last chance for party members to see Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat on stage together in a battle for the hearts minds and, most crucially votes, before two of them are eliminated next week.

Tom Tugendhat was first to speak, talking regularly about his military service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He praised Andy Street, the former mayor for the West Midlands, for bringing 'new homes and transport connections, that generate investment and brand new jobs, focused on delivery not ideology.'

Mr Tugendhat pledged to legally cap net migration to 100,000 a year.

"This will not be a target or an aspiration, but a cap," he said.

But he added that his cap could only be met by boosting skills and education, to reduce Britain's dependency on foreign labour.

"A cap alone won't work," he said. "This is about visas, not about foreign courts.

"This isn’t simple. We issued the visas because businesses need the staff for our care homes and our hospitals, to look after our families.

"We need to fix migration by fixing the gaps in education and skills, in transport and in housing, so that we can recruit at home and not abroad."

He brought the house down with a quip about Labour's troubles in recent weeks.

He joked: "I can't afford Labour, you can't afford Labour, Lord Alli can't afford Labour."

Mr Tugendhat conceded that he had less experience than his colleagues who had served in cabinet.

"My opponents claim they have got more management experience around the Cabinet table," he said.

"That's true. But I'm not here to manage, I'm here to lead."

James Cleverly opened his speech by apologising to members for the party's electoral defeat.

"We, the Conservative parliamentary party, let you down," he said.

"We have to be better, much better, and under my leadership, we will be."

But he said while Nigel Farage and Reform talked about Brexit and immigration, it was he and the Conservative government who had made them a reality.

"Never forget Reform didn’t deliver Brexit, we did," he said.

"Reform didn’t cut immigration, I did.

"And mark my words, we will beat Reform by being the best version of ourselves, not a pale version of anyone else. So no mergers, no deals."

Mr Cleverly said he had never planned to run for the leadership.

"I could have taken the easy way out, spent more time with my wife, more time with my boys, more time with my War Hammer figures."

Mr Cleverly said his wife Susie owed her life to the NHS after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

In what came across as a gentle dig at Mr Tugendhat, he talked about his own time in the forces, briefly in the regular army before injury forced him to switch to the reserves.

"I don't claim to be a war hero, but I did command a battery of 1,000 soldiers," he told.

"One day I got the call, I was being mobilised, I thought I was going to Basra or Baghdad. I was sent... to Luton."

Bookie's favourite Mr Jenrick delivered the spikiest speech.

"Rachel Reeves is more wooden than Pinnochio, and only marginally more honest," he said.

"Keir Starmer takes the knee, but he won't take a stand. Not even at the football."

He said Foreign Secretary David Lammy was 'living proof that there are more annoying LBC presenters than James O'Brien."

He pledged to leave the European Court of Human Rights, saying it was the only way Britain could regain its autonomy.

"We can't reform the European Court of Human Rights, it's Remain or Leave. I'm for Leave."

Kemi Badenoch admitted that the Conservatives had broken many of their promises while in government, and said the Treasury had frustrated efforts to control immigration.

"We promised to lower taxes, they went up," she said.

"We promised to lower immigration, it went up. Why? Because the Treasury said high immigration was good for the economy, but we knew it was not good for our country."

Mrs Badenoch said that 14 years since Gordon Brown left office, but he said the Human Rights Act passed by the Blair -Brown governments continued to cast a shadow over the country.

"You might think Blair and Brown were defeated in 2010, but the truth is the Left never left," she said.

"It's time to make a change.

"Ministers need to be able to make decisions that aren't endlessly challenged in the court.

"If you don't like the decision, there are elections.

"If the law says the Government can't deport a foreign child abuser, then the law is an ass."

"It is