We're up for fight to win the election

THE Conservatives are “up for the fight”, Kemi Badenoch said as she kicked off the party’s annual conference in Manchester.

- By Martyn Brown

The Tory leader described herself as black, female and Conservative but, above all, British as she locked horns with Labour and Reform.

Breaking with tradition and delivering a welcome speech at the start of the conference yesterday, Mrs Badenoch acknowledged the Conservatives had “a mountain to climb” as it trailed third in the polls.