Archie Norman, who after eight frustrating years as a Conservative politician has returned to the business world, said recently that Conservative MPs rather enjoy leadership elections because it makes them feel that they are doing something. As I contemplate the fifth leadership challenge in ten years, I can tell Archie that I have now extracted whatever enjoyment I once had in this recreation, and that I hope the current leadership contest is the last for more than a decade.

What the Conservatives need is a new leader who can reach out across the Party but even more importantly reach out beyond its current support. Even after the recent gains in seat numbers in the Commons, we are a party whose support has moved back to the South East, up the age range and down the social scale. If this is a “core vote” strategy it is a very peculiar one. The Tory core vote used to include a majority of women and ABs. More women now vote Labour, and our share of the AB vote fell 2% between 2001 and 2005, to only 37%. In 1979, the last time we won from opposition, a higher share of first-time voters voted Conservative than the population as a whole. A successful Conservative Party can galvanise the idealistic young.

It is that idealism that we most need to regain. There are Conservative principles involving opportunity, personal freedom, strong communities, and an outward-looking attitude to the world which are hugely relevant to the current state of the country. We also need to be realistic about Britain today. It is not in the chaos of the 1970s, but it could be providing a much better life for many people, especially mothers, pensioners, and those who struggle in our inner cities. We need to show that we are comfortable in today’s Britain. If the Conservative Party does not like modern Britain, it is unlikely that modern Britain will warm to the Conservative party.

So I have been looking for a the leadership candidate who best understands the problems of those aspiring to a better life, especially from poorer backgrounds, and who recognises that we need to apply enduring Conservative principles to today’s problems. I was proud to call myself a One Nation Conservative when it was much less fashionable than it is today, and I put equal stress on both parts of it. “One Nation” because a political party that does not care about the problems of the old, sick, or poor will be unelectable, and will deserve to be: “Conservative” because I believe that the most effective way to allow everyone to achieve their potential is by applying those Conservative principles. Tony Blair has always wanted social justice and economic efficiency, and who could argue with that? What we know, eight years in to the New Labour project, is that for too many people and companies it fails to deliver.

I have come to the conclusion that the Conservative who is best placed to offer a new Tory idealism is David Davis. Since David comes from the right of the party, and I was firmly placed in a recent Daily Telegraph survey on the far left this will come as a surprise to many. But for many years he has argued that the test of every Conservative policy should be what it does for the disadvantaged, which I have always believed. He has also been passionate about taking power away from the centre and allowing local communities more power to take their own decisions. The role of Government, we both agree, should be to allow as many people as possible as much control as possible over their own lives.

The policy implications of this are clear to me. We do not need expensive identity cards to make our streets safe; we need police doing the job in the way their local community wants. If parents in Sweden and Holland are allowed to choose which sort of state school is best for their children, we should allow British parents to do the same. If the next Conservative Government has the ability to offer tax cuts, they should in the first instance go to those who are struggling hardest to keep themselves afloat.

We need to sweep away the old divisions between left and right in the Conservative party, and the application of what were previously regarded as right-wing Conservative policies adapted to help the poor and disadvantaged is the way to do it. Through the fog of the current debate on the party’s future I can discern the outline of a new consensus. Free market, liberal Toryism used to promote One Nation goals. Equality of opportunity promoted by the dispersal of power instead of New Labour’s top-down approach.

It is also time to find a solution to the “modernisation” debate. Just as we are all One Nation Conservatives now, we are all apparently modernisers. This is a genuine step forward. We need to be recognisably representative of the country we hope to govern. Therefore we need to clear away the damaging public view of the Conservative party. Too often we are seen unfairly as a privileged elite. Electing as leader the son of a single mother, who was brought up on a council estate in South London, and who went on to a career in business before entering politics would immediately tell the world that the Conservative party had changed.

The Conservative Party will not win the next General Election by accident; it will win it if it deserves to. It will deserve to if it can demonstrate that it offers a new culture of hope, not only for those who would expect to benefit from a Conservative Government but for the millions who would be surprised to do so. David Davis has set out his initial thoughts about how we can give hope to millions who are struggling, and has the personal story that demonstrates how Conservative values can break down social barriers. I hope he becomes the next Conservative leader, and more importantly the next Conservative Prime Minister.

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