This year’s Conservative Party conference will be a beauty pageant for would-be leaders, with each one setting out their stall as to why they’re the right person to head up the party.

So this week Westminster Insider host Sascha O’Sullivan dives into what it’s really like to be a contender in a Tory leadership campaign — and how candidates can appeal to both MPs and party members alike. 

Andrea Leadsom, who made it through to the final two leadership candidates in 2016 before dramatically dropping out at the 11th hour, recalls the intense pressure on her at the time — and tells Sascha why she really decided to pull out of the race and concede to Theresa May.  

Sascha also speaks to the Tories' former deputy leader, Peter Lilley, about his own failed run for the leadership back in 1997, and to former party leader Michael Howard about why Tory members were given more of a say at that time over who should be in charge.

Tory peer Daniel Finkelstein, a former adviser to William Hague, explains how this new role for the membership led to the election of unpopular leaders like Iain Duncan Smith and Liz Truss. 

And former campaign chiefs Tim Loughton, who ran Leadsom’s campaign, and James Starkie, who ran Priti Patel’s recent leadership bid, give a behind-the-scenes view of how candidates battle to win Tory MPs over to their side. 

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