Rishi Sunak claims putting reducing inflation ahead of tax cuts Thatcherite and ‘deeply Conservative’ – as it happened

6.36pm BST

Early evening summary

• Rishi Sunak has rejected criticism that recent U-turns mean the UK cannot be taken seriously, as he fought to maintain order before a Conservative conference set to be dominated by questions about tax cuts and rivals jostling to succeed him.

• Sunak has refused to commit to tax cuts before the general election, after Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, called for them. He claimed that focusing on bringing down inflation, ahead of cutting tax, is a “deeply Conservative approach”. He made the comment in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. See 12.47pm for a full summary. And see 10.46am for a snap verdict.

• Sunak has been accused by the Welsh government and by the Green party of making misleading or false statements about Wales’ 20mph speeding law and the government’s net zero policies. (See 11.14am and 11.34am.)

• Greg Hands, the Conservative party chairman, has described Keir Starmer as someone who has “flip-flopped almost 60 times in just three years” and who will “literally say anything that suits him at the time”. (See 3.25pm.) He was speaking at the start of an afternoon conference session which saw all the speakers focus much more than usual on attacking the opposition. The speeches contained very little in the way of policy announcements.

Rishi Sunak doing a Q&A with party members, with the media excluded. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 6.38pm BST

6.20pm BST

An attendee at the Tory conference. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images