THIS week the Conservative leadership race finishes its round amongst Conservative MPs and moves out to the wider Tory membership.

This raises questions about the process of political parties choosing their leaders, only for the country to have those leaders put into the position of Prime Minister.

It has happened before. Theresa May became leader without a general election, as did Gordon Brown (although May had an election within a year).

Before that was John Major and I am told that of the last 26 Prime Ministers, 17 came to office without winning a general election.

It is a peculiarity of first-past-the-post system. A constituency votes for their MP, the MP is part of a political group in parliament, that group selects a leader and if that is the biggest group in parliament, that leader becomes the most significant minister – the Prime Minister.

But I completely understand that people feel frustrated about the system. I have contested enough general elections to know that when someone ticks my box, they are doing it mainly because they support my political party and my leader.

I have had many emails about this. The candidate who features most in supportive emails is Boris Johnson. The candidate who features most in emails saying who they are against is Boris Johnson.

Boris is a consummate performer and I have met with him on several occasions to learn more about his plans.

He would make a fine prime minister, recognising the importance of the team he puts in place around him. But I am supporting Jeremy Hunt.

The key immediate problem facing this divided country is securing resolution on Brexit. All the candidates have a proposal for Brexit, but Jeremy’s strikes me as the most sensible and realisable.

But this is not just about Brexit, vitally important though it is. The next Prime Minister will be the PM until May 2022 (the Fixed Term Parliament Act puts that in law).

Our new Prime Minister must be able to tackle the problems we face in this country, face up to our mistakes in government and resolve them. Have a vision for bringing together the country not just over Brexit but also economically.

With 3,500 businesses in Wyre Forest, I need him to understand how business works. And he must be a statesman, championing a newly independent UK on the world stage. Jeremy Hunt, for me, ticks all those boxes.