IT HAS TO BE HUNT, BY DEHENNA DAVISON, THE CANDIDATE FOR BISHOP AUCKLAND

LAST year, I found myself looking at the political betting market. I put a bet on not knowing if or when a leadership contest was coming, but knowing Jeremy Hunt was one to watch.

His politics, like mine, are not based on ideological dogma, but instead on pragmatism stemming from our core Conservative values of aspiration, hard work, and personal responsibility.

As an entrepreneur, he knows the challenges that presents – the responsibility for your employees' livelihoods – and how low taxes can allow enterprise to flourish. Above all, he knows how to negotiate – and that a good negotiator isn’t always a tough nut, but someone the other side can trust is playing with a straight bat.

The Northern Echo:

As a committed Brexiteer, people ask how I can support someone who was a remainer. The key word is “was”. Jeremy has accepted the result. He is now firmly committed to us leaving the EU, and to delivering on the result that saw 61 per cent of Bishop Auckland residents voting to leave. I wholeheartedly believe in his desire and ability to deliver.

This week, he published his ten-point Brexit plan. He will establish a strong negotiating team to go with a fresh approach to seek a new deal – leaving with a good deal is the smoothest outcome for all sides.

However, Jeremy also commits to ramping up no-deal preparations immediately. If, by the end of September, there is no deal agreed, he will cease negotiation and shift all focus onto leaving on October 31. This includes a dedicated Brexit Budget, and establishing a National Logistics Committee to keep goods flowing in and out of the UK.

As a nation, we have nothing to fear from no-deal, but only if the Government is committed to supporting our most vulnerable industries through the transition. Jeremy understands that, and announced a £6bn fund to support agricultural and fishing exporters. For Teesdale sheep farmers, this will be a lifeline.

But it’s about more than Brexit. Brexit will one day be over and then domestic policy will be the Prime Minister’s focus: education, crime, caring for the elderly, improving transport, supporting businesses. Jeremy’s policy programme is superb and geared for the future.

He wants to eradicate illiteracy for primary school leavers. He will reform business rates to support our creaking high streets. He will reduce the National Insurance burden on the lowest paid. He will increase police numbers, and increase spending on defence.

As a person, Jeremy is fiercely intelligent, polite, funny, and undoubtedly a safe pair of hands.

He will be a Prime Minister we can be proud to send out to the world to represent the United Kingdom.

If you’re a Tory member and have a vote, please join me in supporting Jeremy Hunt.

BACKING BORIS, BY PETER GIBSON, THE CANDIDATE FOR DARLINGTON

P EOPLE have been asking me on the

doorsteps of Darlington and through

social media for many weeks now

how I plan to vote in the leadership election.

For most party members it is a private

matter but as a potential MP, I understand

why people want to know how I will vote.

I have until this week been genuinely

undecided, and I’ve approached it, as I approach most things, with an open objective

mind.

People who I’ve asked on the doorsteps tell

me it “doesn’t matter to me along as you get

Brexit sorted”, although there are clearly

some Boris fans across the town.

Here in Darlington we have a lost trust in

politics. Labour locally was out of touch and

paid the price in the local elections, while

the current MP says one thing in Darlington

and does the opposite in Westminster.

I’ve now listened to the debates, attended

the hustings, and perhaps most importantly

for me heard answers to key issues of local

importance such as North Powerhouse rail,

and the proposed freeport.

Both Jeremy and Boris are pragmatic, one

nation conservatives, a political place I feel

most comfortable with.

Both believe in the free market, supporting business, encouraging opportunity, investing in our NHS, police, and armed forces and seeing improvements in education

– it still shocks me to learn that so many of

our primary children leave school lacking

basic literacy.

So I’d happy with either as leader – but I

still needed to make up my mind.

The Northern Echo:

We face unique times. The party I have

been a member of since I was 16 faces huge

challenges to restore its fortunes.

We need a great campaigner who has a

magic touch and can engage with the people

on the doorsteps in a positive, enthusiastic

way.

We need a leader who can ignite optimism

and provide hope – for me as the party’s flag

bearer here in Darlington, and for our country as we move into a post-EU era.

So I attended the York hustings on Thursday evening and came to a decision.

I’m backing Boris.

He is a born campaigner, and has an unquantifiable quality that is simply infectious to campaign alongside.

He has thrown his weight behind our mayor’s plan for a freeport – giving it unqualified support – and that key factor for me

has been the clincher. Whatever is good for

Darlington and the wider Tees Valley gets

my support.

I believe that Boris can provide that hope,

optimism and enthusiasm for our party and

for our country. He believes, as I do, that we

can have a bright future and our better days

always lie ahead of us.