Away from the Tory conference in Birmingham, Defence Secretary John Healey is in Cyprus as the Government steps up efforts for a potential evacuation of Lebanon with the Middle East teetering on the brink of wider war.

Mr Healey (pictured) confirmed British forces were involved in efforts to defend Israel from Iran’s ballistic missile barrage as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned of the risk of a ‘miscalculation’ after the escalation of violence in the region.

It is understood RAF jets were involved in the efforts to intercept the Iranian missiles targeted at Israel.

The operation was similar to the role carried out by the UK’s forces when Iran launched a drone and cruise missile barrage at Israel in April, when RAF Typhoons were involved in the defensive effort.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Mr Healey confirmed: ‘British forces have this evening played their part in attempts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East’.

After the four cadidates have given their speeches this morning, they will each have just one week to shore up support from their fellow MPs.

Tom Tugendhat is up first on the stage today, followed by James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch.

There will then be two more ballots for MPs on October 9 and 10, to decide which two candidates become the final two, who are then voted on by party members.

The online ballot for members will take place between October 10 and October 31, with the results announced on November 2.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the Conservative brand is ‘completely damaged’ and he has no intention of doing a deal with the next Tory leader.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Farage said of the four Conservative Party leadership candidates: ‘They all think with a new leader ‘it’ll all be fine, all the voters will come back to us’, and what they don’t understand is the Conservative brand is completely damaged, they have no chance of winning the next election.’

He added: ‘There would be no deal with them, I wouldn’t trust them anyway, they have a pattern of behaviour pretending to be one thing and then when they’re in government being quite the opposite.

And, frankly, what I’m trying to do with Reform is replace them.

The Trades Union Congress has been forced to apologise after suggesting that schools were right to discriminate against a former Tory MP struggling to find work as a teacher.

Jonathan Gullis, who represented Stoke-on-Trent North from 2019 until being kicked out at the election in July, said he had been unable to even get an interview for work in his former profession since his defeat.

Speaking to Times Radio at the Conservative Party Conference, the former minister suggested that he was being discriminate against because of his political views in a profession dominated by the left.

But in a tweet the TUC poked fun at his difficulties, saying: ‘The trade union movement will always stand up for workers facing unfair discrimination. This is not one of those times.’

Leadership hopeful and the former Home and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will pledge to bring back ‘Conservatism with a smile’ in his speech to party members later this morning.

The MP is expected to tell delegates to stop ‘being the grumpy party’ following the worst-ever modern election defeat for the Tories earlier this year.

He will instead tell conference attendees to be ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘positive’ as Labour’s opposition.

Former MP and Boris Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries has called for Kemi Badenoch to be disqualified from the Tory leadership race.

Ms Dorries argued the party needed a leader who was ‘non-confrontational’, and accused her of ‘plotting to remove a sitting prime minister.’

Speaking at a More in Common event last night, Ms Dorries said: ‘We all know how the [media] feel about Kemi Badenoch, don’t we? I’d be deeply concerned.

‘I think you need to have to be non-confrontational. I think you need to have demonstrated that you were loyal when you served in government.

I think if you are someone who plotted to remove a sitting prime minister, you should automatically be disqualified.

A YouGov survey has suggested that polls are tightening and the commanding lead enjoyed by Kemi Badenoch among Tory activists has decreased dramatically.

The poll found that the former business secretary is now just three points ahead of Mr Jenrick, down from 18 points in July, at 27 and 24 points respectively.

James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat are tied on 16 points each, but with 17 percent of activists still not knowing who they would most like to be leader, the contest is all to play for.

Earlier, we brought you an update on the row engulfing the Tory party conference over a video accusing the SAS of killing terrorists instead of detaining them.

Watch Tom Tugendhat’s comments in full here:

The final four Tory leader contenders will make their big pitches to the party faithful today.

The candidates are all giving speeches as the conference in Birmingham wraps up – with the race looking too close to call.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are seen as the front runners after topping the ballot of MPs. But Ms Badenoch has been struggling to quell a spat over suggesting maternity pay is ‘excessive’.

And Mr Jenrick is facing a furious backlash from his rivals over a campaign video in which he claimed British forces were killing terrorists rather than capturing them to dodge European human rights rules.

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat – another candidate – retorted that Mr Jenrick ‘knows nothing’ about sensitive military issues.

Kemi Badenoch has said people who want to move to the UK need to be ‘very committed’, adding the country is ‘not a dormitory’.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about immigration, Ms Badenoch said: ‘What we did previously was just leave the Home Office to look at people coming in and out, but we need to make sure that when people are coming to this country they are people who are coming to contribute and also who want the success of our country.

Of course there will be others who are passing through, like student visas, for example, but if people want to stay here, we live in an age where you need to be very committed: we are not a dormitory, we’re not a sponge.

I’m somebody who came to this country at 16 and I did so wanting to be here, wanting to be from here, so culture matters.

James Cleverly has suggested he would pledge to axe stamp duty if elected leader in order to help the economy ‘thrive’.

Asked if he would pledge to slash the tax, the Conservative former minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme stamp duty ‘stagnates the market’.

He added: ‘At the last general election, my party – the Conservative Party – was being criticised by the Labour Party for taxing too much.

‘If we don’t start cutting taxes, we stifle the economy and we will ultimately not be able to thrive as a country.’

When put to him that the measure was explored by Liz Truss in her short tenure as prime minister, Mr Cleverly replied: ‘Your argument is because one of my predecessors proposed it, we can never propose it?

‘This is why we have now got the highest tax burden since the war. Higher than many of our international competitors and high enough that the Labour Party felt liberated to criticise us.’

Tom Tugendhat has said the use of footage of a British soldier in Afghanistan who died shortly afterwards in a controversial video by rival Robert Jenrick is ‘upsetting’.

Mr Jenrick had already sparked controversy with the video, which saw him claim British troops are ‘killing’ terrorists instead of detaining them due to ECHR red tape.

Mr Tugendhat said the claims were fundamentally ‘untrue’, and told BBC Newsnight the clip had featured a friend of his who was killed shortly after the footage was taken.

He said: ‘What’s particularly upsetting is that video is using a piece of footage of some of the people I served with, one of whom there died shortly after that film was taken in an accident.

‘And he’s not able to defend himself from the accusation that is being levelled against him. That’s footage of a soldier in northern Afghanistan in around 2002.’

He added he would ‘take the video down’.

All eyes are on the Tory leadership candidates this morning as they gear up for keynote speeches later this morning.

Rivals Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch will all take to the stage from 10:45am and deliver 20-minute pitches to MPs andparty members.

After the conference, a final round of voting by MPs will whittle the field down to two candidates, before members elect the new leader.

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live blog as the final day of the Conservative Party conference gets underway.

We will be bringing you all the latest updates from Birmingham as the leadership candidates set out their final pitch to party members.