It's not only Labour who like freebies! Tory leadership rivals try to woo party members with giveaways including fake tan, tattoos, bottles for 'Keir's tears'... and sudokus to keep conference attende

The four Tory leadership contenders are engaged in a battle of free merchandise on the opening day of the party's conference in Birmingham .

Campaigners for Kemi Badenoch , James Cleverly , Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are attempting to woo party members with various gifts.

Proving that not only Sir Keir Starmer and senior Labour ministers are fond of freebies, conference delegates have been gladly accepting a variety of wares.

As well as the usual campaign T-shirts, there are also some less traditional items being handed out.

These include bottles of fake tan dubbed 'Tugend-tan', water bottles to be filled with 'Keir's tears', and sweets emblazoned with each contender's campaign slogans.

Mr Tugendhat's allies are fully exploiting their candidate's surname by also handing out 'Tugend-tart' cakes, 'Tugend-tote' bags, and 'Tugend-hat' headgear.

More bizarrely, party members are being encouraged to transfer temporary 'Tom' tattoos in support of Mr Tugendhat onto their skin.

Meanwhile, Mr Jenrick's team are attempting to push their man's key messages by issuing a 'Jenrick Post' newspaper.

One ally sniped that the pamphlet included a sudoku puzzle for conference delegates to complete during 'Tom Tugendhat's boring speeches'.

The Tory gathering in Birmingham, which lasts until Wednesday, has effectively been turned into a prolonged audition for the four leadership rivals.

One of Ms Badenoch, Mr Cleverly, Mr Jenrick and Mr Tugendhat will be elected as Rishi Sunak's successor in a ballot of party members next month.

This will come after the four contenders are whittled down to a final pairing through voting by Tory MPs.

As well as the free gifts being handed out by the various campaign teams, there is official Conservative Party merchandise on sale in Birmingham.

This includes scarves, hats, ties, umbrellas and Margaret Thatcher or Winston Churchill Toby jugs.

Party officials are also selling blank notebooks, which are titled as 'Labour's plan for the country'.