Three cabinet ministers have thrown their hats into the ring in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss, chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and transport secretary Grant Shapps join Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman in entering the contest.
Former junior minister Kemi Badenoch and foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat have also declared their intentions to stand.
But defence secretary Ben Wallace said he had decided not to put his name forward.
Both Truss and Shapps plan to target frontrunner Sunak in their bids to be PM.
According to the Mail on Sunday, the foreign secretary will pledge to reverse the £12bn hike in national insurance Sunak introduced while he was chancellor, and scrap the £16bn increase in corporation tax planned for next year.
Meanwhile, Shapps took a clear swipe at the former chancellor - who resigned last Tuesday in protest at Johnson’s leadership - by saying he had “not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister”.
“I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back,” he said in an article for the Sunday Times. “I tell you this: for all his flaws – and who is not flawed – I like Boris Johnson.
“I have never, for a moment, doubted his love of this country.”
“I have not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the Prime Minister.
“I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back. I tell you this: for all his flaws – and who is not flawed – I like Boris Johnson.
“I have never, for a moment, doubted his love of this country.”
Launching his campaign, Zahawi pledged to lower taxes for individuals, families and business, boost defence spending, and continue with schools reforms that he started while he was education secretary.
He said: “My aim is a simple one: to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from. To steady the ship and to stabilise the economy.”