'We have a pride in the land...and want to hand on a better country'

David Cameron presented the Tories as champions of nature, encouraging voters to “vote blue, go green”.

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Ms Atkins also sees her party as a defender of the environment, saying the “clue is in the name”.

“We are the Conservatives because we believe in conserving that of which we are proud, but also of course handing on a better country and a better countryside to our children and our grandchildren.”

Politics runs deep in her family. Her father, Sir Robert Atkins, served as an MP and MEP, but it was an early encounter as a lawyer with a 12-year-old boy which sent her on the road to public service and Westminster.