Cameron in an article written for the News of the World. 6 December 2005 – David Cameron's victory announced. Election timetable 7 October: Nominations open 13 October: Nominations close 18 October: First ballot of MPs 20 October: Second ballot of MPs Subsequent Tuesdays and Thursdays: Further ballots of MPs if required, until only two candidates remain 5 December: Members' ballot closes 6 December: Result announced Party Conference At the 2005 Conservative Party conference, each of the five announced candidates at the time was allowed a 20-minute speech. This was seen by many as the start of the leadership campaign by each of the candidates and their speeches were closely analysed by party members and the media. Many felt that front-runner (at the time of his speech) David Davis had performed rather poorly, while the speeches of Kenneth Clarke, Liam Fox, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and David Cameron were much better. This led to a rapid change in the odds of the five candidates on the betting markets – on the morning of 6 October, David Davis was the clear leader and David Cameron third, but by the evening of the same day the two had swapped places. By the end of the conference, David Cameron had become the front runner, with Kenneth Clarke and David Davis closely behind. The conference was also seen as similar to the Conservatives' 1963 conference, where there was also a race to become leader. Polling The Sunday Times and YouGov polled 746 members of the Conservative Party just after the conference. The poll showed support slipping away from David Davis (14%) and Kenneth Clarke (26%) and moving to Liam Fox (13%) and David Cameron (39%) instead. The Daily Telegraph and YouGov polled 665 members of the Conservative Party just after the first ballot, where Clarke was eliminated leaving only three contestants. The poll showed that 59 percent backed David Cameron, against 18 percent for Liam Fox and 15 per cent for Mr Davis. This poll showed support for Mr Cameron being strong amongst the grassroots of the party on the eve of the final (membership) ballot. In a YouGov poll published on 12 November, more than two-thirds of party members looked set to vote for the younger candidate as party leader. Around 68 per cent of voters who had already returned their ballot papers had opted for Mr Cameron, while 66 per cent of those still