It was round two of the Tory leadership fireside chats.
After “posh boy” Tom Tugendhat and “working class” Kemi Badenoch, it was the turn of “Ozempic man” and “macho man”.
Politics Live: China should pay for Peppa Pig,’ says Cleverly
Robert Jenrick, who took the weight loss drug for six weeks, changed his diet, exercised and lost four stone, was taking on the barrel-chested strongman James Cleverly, who does press-ups for fun.
And on the evidence of this confident, swaggering performance, Mr Cleverly may be muscling his way into the final two candidates who will contest the leadership in the final ballot of Tory members.
Without mentioning Mr Jenrick by name, “macho man” made several attacks on “Ozempic man” and boastfully told the audience he was a winner and they couldn’t afford to elect any of the other three candidates to replace Rishi Sunak.
It was Mr Jenrick, all slick, measured and media-trained, who went first and began with the disclosure that the middle name of his second daughter, Sophia, is Thatcher, because she was born the year Mrs Thatcher died.
The Tory final four: Could any of them be PM in 2029?
The Tory party conference is full of optimism the party can return to power in five years – but is the first stage of grief denial?
Robert Jenrick doubles down on accusation SAS kill not capture terrorists due to ECHR
Yes, really. There were gasps of astonishment from the Thatcher-loving audience. Could this really be true? Yes, apparently.
But Mr Jenrick then had a good joke at Sir Keir Starmer’s expense. His daughter had asked if he’d get free Taylor Swift tickets if he becomes leader. “No, that’s only leaders of the Labour Party,” he said.
Challenged by interviewer Christopher Hope if he’d turn down freebies if he became leader, he looked startled. He’d have to say yes, he conceded. He may live to regret that!
Later, asked the same question, Mr Cleverly was having none of that. “Yes, every now and then!” he said. The man has no shame!
Mr Jenrick had a good gag, too, when asked about a deal with Nigel Farage and Reform UK. “I don’t think the party could afford the bar bill if we allowed Nigel Farage back in,” he said.
And then, when asked which of his Tory colleagues he’d like to see in the BBC reality game show The Traitors, he quipped: “Michael Gove has left Parliament!”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Poor Mr Gove is the butt of a lot of Tory jokes in Birmingham this week. He’ll surely have his revenge in the columns of the Spectator magazine now he’s editor.
Mr Jenrick backed a shorter leadership contest so the winner could oppose the Budget in October and also the return of grammar schools. All the candidates love grammar schools.
Then came a story about Mr Jenrick’s own humble origins, the sort of story we’re also used to from political leaders these days. He grew up in a “working class background”, he claimed. Don’t they all? (Well, not Tom Tugendhat, obviously.)
“Money was quite tight in our household,” Mr Jenrick said. “My mum and dad quit their job and set up a small business, and it didn’t prosper initially. I went to a state primary school, and my granddad died.
“And my grandmother, who was not a wealthy person herself, decided instead of going on a cruise or doing anything else you might do with some money to spend that money putting my sister and I through a private school. It wasn’t Eton. It was Wolverhampton Grammar School.”
It was “an innately Conservative story”, he claimed. “And we should never bow to the politics of envy,” he said. “We should respect people who make decisions like that.”
And then it was time for Mr Cleverly, who strode on to the stage like a heavyweight boxer entering the ring. He does, of course, have the physique of a heavyweight boxer, which helps give him his swagger.
👉 Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts 👈
But he told his own humble beginning story, too. He said he went to a private fee-paying school which used to be a grammar school.
And then he claimed: “Because my parents could only afford one set of school fees, that’s why I’m an only child. Genuinely, that’s the sacrifice my parents made to pay for my education.”
Two grammar school boys, then, funded by sacrifices made by their family. We’ll no doubt hear more about this when they make their big speeches on the final day of this conference.
Later Mr Cleverly told, in a very amusing way that made the audience laugh, his own family history. “I’m the child of migrant families, on both sides of my family,” he said.
“My mum came here from Sierra Leone in west Africa in 1966 and my dad’s family came here from northern France in 1066.”
Mr Cleverly, however, doesn’t do modesty. He spoke about “when I’m leader” rather than “if”. Nor is he shy about talking about himself. He must have said “I” up to 100 times during his hour on the stage.
“I am the only one who has run a great office of state,” he began by reminding his audience. “In fact, I’m the only one that has run two great offices of state and delivered in both of them.
“I’m the only one who has been chairman of the Conservative party. I’m the only one who’s been instrumental in winning a general election.”
Read More:
Tory leadership race: Robert Jenrick in touching distance of Kemi Badenoch, poll shows
Jenrick doubles down on accusation SAS kill not capture terrorists due to ECHR
He was self-deprecating only in answer to two questions, first on his widely reported off-colour jokes about the date rape drug Rohypnol. “I messed up,” he confessed.
And second, when he was asked if he had any skeletons in his cupboard. He referred to a 2015 interview in which he admitted watching online porn and marijuana.
Then came the not-so-subtle attacks on Mr Jenrick. “It’s very now fashionable to be a Brexiteer,” he said. “I was doing it before it was cool.”
On Mr Jenrick resigning from the government over the Rwanda policy, he said: “I didn’t run away from problems, I deal with problems.”
And on Mr Jenrick wearing a “Hamas are terrorists” hoodie, he said: “I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said ‘You don’t need to wear a T-shirt to show what your principles are’.”
Ouch! The heavyweight had landed some effective blows on his opponent. And he ended by declaring: “When I’m in the final two.”
Was this second round of the fireside chats a preview of the final two in the leadership contest? Is Mr Cleverly going to repeat David Cameron’s triumph of the 2005 Tory conference, when his performance saw him transformed from outsider to front runner?
Given the reaction of many in the audience as they left the hall – “Cleverly nailed it”, several activists told Sky News – “macho man” may not have delivered a knock-out blow on “Ozempic man”. But he certainly won on points.
