Cleverly says it was a mistake for Sunak to say he would ‘stop the boats’ because that was ‘unachievable target’ – as it happened

James Cleverly does push ups at the Conservative party conference. Photograph: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock

6.35pm BST

Early evening summary

• Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch have both used Q&A sessions in the main conference hall to address perceived weaknesses with their leadership campaigns. Both were well received by party members, on a day when none of the four candidates made an obvious error, or said anything significantly new and likely to reshape the contest. Tugendhat, who is seen as having most chance of being voted out in the next MPs’ ballot, forcefully dismissed claims that he lacked the right experience to be Conservative leader. (See 2.29pm.) Badenoch sought to draw a line under her maternity pay gaffe yesterday by suggesting that she has now joined Margaret Thatcher in the ranks of Tory leaders whose words have been misrepresented by opponents. (See 3.35pm.) Badenoch also defended her claim that she was working class when she worked in McDonalds in south London as teenager, saying that the description was fair because she was poor at the time and sometimes went hungry. (See 3.23pm.) A recent biography gives a slightly different impression, saying that although Badenoch was short of money at this point, she did not need to get a job. (See 4,53pm.) Tomorrow Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly get the main hall Q&A treatment. Both have been doing fringe meetings today, with Jenrick saying the Tories must commit to leaving the ECHR “or die” (see 8.23am), and Cleverly saying it was a mistake for Rishi Sunak to promise to “stop the boats (see 5.44pm).

• Liz Truss has said the Conservatives would have done better in July’s general election if she had stayed on as prime minister, during an often freewheeling one-off appearance at the Tory conference.

• Senior Conservatives are considering pushing for a lifting of the moratorium on fracking in England to become party policy.

• The cabinet secretary, Simon Case, has formally announced that he will stand down as the UK’s most senior civil servant at the end of the year.

Updated at 12.48pm BST

6.09pm BST

Jenrick says Liz Truss's mini-budget 'cack-handed, careless and unconservative'

Senior Conservatives have been reluctant to criticise Liz Truss directly over her mini-budget at this conference, even though it had a terrible impact on the party’s poll rating. But Robert Jenrick has gone further than most others in an interview with ITV’s Peston being broadcast tonight. Asked about the mini-budget, he said:

I think that the mini budget in particular did great harm to our reputation for sound management of the public finances - it was cack-handed, it was careless and it was unconservative and that is part of my mission now, to rebuild our reputation for sound management of the public finances and reclaim the mantle for low tax and pro growth.