Tory leadership race will be part contest and part post-mortem

Tories defend handling of public services and economy

The shadow paymaster general has defended the Conservatives’ handling of public services while in government and accused Labour of “breaking all their promises” from their general election campaign. John Glen: "The facts show we had tough times with high borrowing costs, but we achieved 0.7% growth, the fastest in the G7, and inflation is down to 2%." Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Mel Stride enters Conservatives leadership race

Mel Stride has become the fourth Conservative MP to announce they are joining the race for the party’s leadership. Mr Stride, the MP for Central Devon, said he believed he was the right person to “unite the party”. The former work and pensions secretary retained his seat by just 61 votes at the General Election. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn