Kemi Badenoch put her faltering leadership campaign back on track with a powerful speech to end the Tory conference.

Kemi Badenoch has claimed young Conservatives are marked down at university because of their personal politics. Speaking at the end of the annual Tory conference, the leadership candidate told party delegates that the younger generation are “afraid to share their politics” out of fear their peers will attack them or lecturers will mark them down.

Robert Jenrick is closing in on Kemi Badenoch in the race to become the next Tory leader, a new poll has indicated. Six weeks ago, YouGov put Ms Badenoch 15 points ahead of Mr Jenrick, with party members backing the former business secretary by 48 per cent compared to Mr Jenrick’s 33 per cent if the two went head-to-head in the final round.