The Tory leadership contest between (clockwise from top-left) Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat is set to be cut short to allow Rishi Sunak ‘s successor to take on Rachel Reeves at next month’s Budget

Ms Reeves’s (pictured) ‘parliament-defining’ Budget is due on October 30

Senior Tories now plan to push the idea again when the field of four is whittled down to two after this week’s Conservative Party conference.

Both candidates will have to agree for the plan to go ahead, but a source said they would be ‘advised they are making a big mistake if they don’t’.

One insider described the current timetable as ‘mad’, adding: ‘If it stays as it is we are going to have Rishi Sunak responding to the most important Budget of this parliament and then stepping down three days later. By that point he will be the definition of a lame-duck leader.’

Another said: ‘There is going to be another attempt to cut short the contest when we are down to the final two because there is a clear logic to it.

‘The Leader of the Opposition only really has two guaranteed opportunities a year to make a public impact – one is the leader’s speech at conference and the other is responding to the Budget.

‘Labour are going to use this Budget to get all the bad stuff out of the way and to try and blame it on us – it will define the whole parliament – and the new leader has to shape our response to that.’

Tory activists will gather in Birmingham tomorrow for the start of the party conference, which will focus almost entirely on the contest to succeed Mr Sunak (pictured)

Tory activists will gather in Birmingham tomorrow for the start of the party conference, which will focus almost entirely on the contest to succeed Mr Sunak.

Dame Priti Patel and Mel Stride were knocked out in the first round of the contest in July, leaving Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat to fight it out.

This week’s conference has been organised as a ‘beauty contest’ to allow the candidates to make their pitches to party members.

All four face a series of interviews, question-and-answer sessions and media appearances, culminating on Wednesday when each will give 20-minute speech in the main conference hall.

Mr Jenrick is the bookmakers’ favourite after topping a poll of Tory MPs in July.

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Sir Keir Starmer had ANOTHER £16,000 of clothes given to him by Labour peer Lord Alli as row over Prime Minister’s freebies deepens

The freebies row engulfing Sir Keir Starmer deepened on Friday night as it emerged he was given another £16,000-worth of clothes by Labour peer Lord Alli.

Two donations, one for £10,000 in October 2023 and another for £6,000 in February this year, were quietly ‘recategorised’ by Downing Street amid intense scrutiny.

It brings the total accepted by the Prime Minister from Lord Alli for clothing to £32,000. He also accepted more than £2,400 for several pairs of glasses.

It comes amid mounting questions about the PM’s use of the Labour peer’s £18 million penthouse flat in Covent Garden, central London, including he and his family living there during the election. That freebie was valued at £20,437 for a near seven-week stay.

The latest clothing freebies, revealed in the Guardian, were originally recorded in the MPs’ register of interests as simply support ‘for the private office of the leader of the opposition’, as he was not PM at the time.

Sir Keir Starmer addressing the nation as leader of the opposition at Lord Alli’s Covent Garden penthouse flat

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer received another £16,000-worth of clothes from Labour peer Lord Alli  (pictured)

Sir Keir and his family also stayed at Lord Alli’s £18 million penthouse flat in Covent Garden, central London for nearly seven weeks during the election

It was not known that they were for clothes until last night. It is understood that following further advice given to No 10 it sought a ‘recategorisation’ of the donations.

It throws into question many more thousands of pounds-worth of donations registered by Cabinet ministers, as several have listed donations generically.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner registered an £8,500 donation from Lord Alli in November 2023, listed as a ‘donation to support me in my capacity as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party’. Another for £8,250, registered in April this year, was listed the same.

A third given to her by the Labour peer, for £3,550 in June this year, later turned out to be clothes after initially being listed simply as ‘donation in kind’.

Sir Keir registered £16,200 in gifts from Lord Alli in May this year and did record it as being for ‘work clothing’ in the MPs’ register of interests. He registered £2,485 for ‘multiple pairs of glasses’ in the same month.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister was accused of ’empty promises’ and ‘hypocrisy’ in a letter from Tory frontbencher John Glen, Shadow Paymaster General.

Sir Keir Starmer attending a breakfast meeting with business leaders at the consul general’s residence in New York

Sir Keir with Sir Jim Ratcliffe at a match at Old Trafford. Sir Keir has also come under pressure for accepting tickets to Premier League football matches

Mr Glen wrote: ‘You pledged to put ‘country first, party second’.

‘Actions speak louder than words. In recent weeks, the scandals over Lord Alli, Sue Gray [earning more than the PM] and appointments to the Civil Service have exposed these promises as empty and hypocritical.’

Labour has refused to answer questions about Lord Alli being given a No 10 pass to attend meetings on the grounds of national security. The pass has since been withdrawn.

In his letter, Mr Glen added: ‘It is incredulous to claim that it would compromise national security to disclose which political figure authorised his pass, when it was given, and when it was returned.’

The PM has also had to defend himself for using Lord Alli’s apartment to record two clips, one telling Britain to work from home in the pandemic and another paying a tribute to the late Queen.

The former, from December 2021, saw him sat at a desk with a family picture on the shelves behind him, creating the impression he was at his home and leading to accusations he tried to ‘hoodwink’ the public.

He also came under fire for his seven-week stay there which the PM said was to allow his son to study for his GCSEs ‘in peace’.

Tory frontbencher John Glen accused the Prime Minister of ’empty promises’ and ‘hypocrisy’

The use of the penthouse to film the two clips was not recorded in the MPs’ register of interests as Downing Street said it fell below the £300 value threshold for declaring gifts. The stay with his family was, valued at £20,437.28 – around £450 a night.

Critics have accused the PM of undervaluing the gift, with smaller nearby properties commanding £30,000 a month in rent.

Sir Keir is also facing questions about other times Lord Alli may have made properties available to the party. Some 23 donations for ‘hospitality’ from the peer – worth £55,000 – were recorded by the Electoral Commission, made to Labour. The party yesterday refused to say what the donations related to.

The PM has received more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader: £107,145-worth since 2019.

A Labour spokesman said: ‘All donations are declared in accordance with Parliamentary and Electoral Commission rules.’