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The Tory leadership hopeful has, James Cleverly, has answered questions about his thoughts on the party’s monumental election defeat.

He says the Conservatives “achieved a lot” during their time in office but they were “obscured by a lot of the infighting, a lot of the rowing [and] a lot of the bad behaviour”.

He says the party now needs to “get a grip” on it, and that he’s “best placed to do that because… I have always conducted myself in a way that I am proud of”.

“My personal record is one that I’m very comfortable defending, because both at the Foreign Office and at the Home Office, I had a track record of success,” he adds

In particular, Mr Cleverly defends his record on tackling small boat crossing and reducing migration to the UK, saying the numbers were “heading in the right direction”.

He adds the current government has made “rookie errors” with its winter fuel allowance changes and the prisoner release scheme.

Phillips points out the schemes are to deal with problems Mr Cleverly’s government created, but the shadow home secretary says the policy changes are down to the “naive and inexperienced” Labour government.

He says the Tories now need to “make the case to win the people back” after losing the confidence of voters.

“We need to make the case, the Conservative case, for lower taxes, for more entrepreneurialism, for stronger borders, for strong defence,” he adds.

Cleverly: ‘Very disappointing’ government has failed to get Ukraine permission for long-range missile use

Questions now turn to Ukraine, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy urging the UK and US to allow it to use Western long-range missiles to launch attacks deeper into Russia.

Mr Cleverly says he “lobbied very, very hard” to give Ukraine what it needed to defend itself when he was foreign secretary, and that his government “led the field” when it came to providing the long-range missiles Ukraine is hoping to use.

He adds it’s “very disappointing” that Sir Keir and foreign secretary David Lammy have “failed to secure international agreement for Ukraine to use these missiles” to defend itself.

“It’s complicated negotiations, but we’ve had a successful track record up until now, and I really hope that they will continue pushing on this,” he says.

Phillips asks Mr Cleverly repeatedly whether he would allow Ukraine to use the long-range missiles if he were in charge now.

He dodges the question repeatedly, but he does say it is “untenable” to demand Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s missile attacks without the opportunity to “neutralise” its launch sites.