This election matters. The government you elect for the next five years needs to set out a new relationship for us with the EU and define the UK’s new role in the world. I want a country that is outward looking, optimistic, positive and friendly to our neighbours. I want us to be a beacon for free trade and freedom, a force for good in the globe.

We also need to make sure as we define and negotiate our new role that we keep the economic recovery moving forward. Just as Conservative led governments have over the last seven years created the climate for many new jobs and growth after the banking crisis of 2008, so we need stable and strong leadership to take the recovery on to the next stage. I am impatient to see more and better paid jobs, better education and training, more success for individuals and for all parts of the country. We will need to spend more on our local public services, and I will put the case for them to the Treasury.

The task of uniting the country around its new future will be easier if we do keep the recovery going. It will helped by taking people on lower incomes out of tax together, as we have been doing, and easing the tax squeeze on the middle by raising the 40% tax threshold. We must make it more worthwhile working, and help equip people to work smarter and better so their pay can rise.

The Conservative government has done the preparatory work for the EU negotiations. We now need to be generous with our words and our aspirations for our neighbours, but firm in making sure we take back control of the things we need to govern ourselves and to develop freer trade and more positive relationships with the rest of the world.

We need to remember we are leaving the EU, not turning our backs on Europe. We want open borders, but our own policy on who can work and settle here and security checks to keep us safe. We want free trade with the rest of the EU as we have today, which is much in their interest. There will continue to be many collaborations, student exchanges, joint projects, mutual investments, common foreign policy initiatives and the rest that characterise our deep relationship with the continental countries. We must ensure all our citizens living on the continent are free to stay, just as we wish to reassure all EU citizens living here that they are most welcome.

I think Theresa May and the Conservatives are the right team to handle these complex issues and to set out our new and exciting role in the wider world. I would like to be part of the Parliament that brings this to pass, and to be Wokingham’s voice in the many debates and discussions that this big task will require.