As you will no doubt have noticed, I’ve thrown my hat into the ring to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.

At the time of writing I’m on to the ballot paper and doing hustings with my parliamentary colleagues but things may have changed by the time you read this article.

It is always an incredible privilege to stand in front of your colleagues and say why you would like to lead them and the country as I have been doing this week.

But this time there are two particular challenges we face – Putin’s aggression in Ukraine and a shrinking economy. As a former foreign secretary and someone with background as a business entrepreneur, I want to put my long experience at the service of my country.

But before we can even start to tackle those problems, the Conservative Party must win back the trust of the many voters who are angry with us over the partygate issues.

Residents in South West Surrey sent me several thousand letters and emails expressing that anger.

Because I have not served in this administration and, indeed, spoke out on those issues, choosing me would send the strongest possible signal that my party has listened to that anger.

Your views have always represented to me decent, mainstream values and not least because of hearing them I took the painful decision to say something publicly something I have never said before – namely that my party needed to change its leader or lose the next election.

The leadership election must now look forward, not back. We need to change track on the economy.

Now is the worst time possible to be raising taxes on businesses because they generate the wealth that pays for our public services.

That is why I have pledged that in my first budget I will not only stop the rise in corporation tax the government has planned but cut it to 15 per cent – the lowest allowed under a recent international agreement.

Through my bounceback campaign I have been working hard to support local businesses in Farnham, Godalming and Haslemere – and one of the best ways to do that would be to allow them to keep more of their profits to reinvest in growth and creating more jobs.

On the international scene the crisis in Ukraine has shown how important it is that we properly fund our armed forces.

With Germany, Poland and other countries pledging to increase the amount they spend, we are set to slide down the NATO rankings from fourth to seventh or eighth.

I have a fully-costed plan to increase the amount we spend on defence to three per cent of GDP by 2028. This will allow us to stop the plans to cut 10,000 personnel from our army and ensure we support Ukraine as is necessary.

Because of the time scales involved we can make this commitment (and the commitments on corporation tax) and still reduce debt as a proportion of GDP.

We live in a country of extraordinary potential. I hope my party will give me the chance to help unlock it. In the meantime, try not to overheat!