THE first indication that it was not all spring blossom and harmony in the commuter belt came when the Guildford Liberal Democrats suspected that I might be a spy.

I rang them to say that a couple of readers had suggested that I pop down and that I would like to go out canvassing with the candidate. “What’s your name?” said a wary apparatchik. I told her, but she wanted my Editor’s name and telephone number.

“Why don’t you Google me?” I suggested brightly. Eventually she found an article from The Times that I had written and reluctantly agreed that I was bona fide. She explained that they had had problems with a so-called freelance journalist ringing up and asking for their candidate’s whereabouts. Hardly able to contain my excitement at the prospect of picking up secret intelligence from the highest echelons of Guildford Liberal Democrats, I scrambled on to the first train.

Guildford, including the town centre and outlying villages, is one of the most marginal seats. In 1997, when all sorts of other improbable places were lost by the Tories, it remained true blue, just like the rest of Surrey. But in 2001 the unthinkable happened and Sue Doughty took the seat for the Liberal Democrats by just 538 votes.

The three main parties all have women candidates. Anne Milton, the Tory hopeful, said that it was careless of the Tories to have lost the seat. I found her canvassing an area of tidy, modern brick homes with blooming gardens and BMWs in the drives. “It’s war here,” she said by way of greeting. Residents were eagerly putting up her posters. “You’ve called in the middle of the rugger,” one middle-aged man said. “Of course you have my vote. Thank you.”

One of the big issues Mrs Milton, a nurse with four children, is pushing is home-building. “Most people feel there is a limit to the number of houses Guildford can take,” she said. She deplored the cramming of houses into the city and blamed the Government Office for the South East, which decides how many houses must be built in the region. She thinks that the Tory plan to scrap regional quangos and hand greater planning control to councils is a vote winner.

Ms Doughty pointed out that it was the Conservative-run county council that had decided that almost 5,000 homes should be built in or around Guildford. Mrs Milton’s point was that the poor council has its hands tied by the regional body. I wondered if voters found this as confusing as I did.

On a council estate Ms Doughty, who refers to herself as the Surrey One, lingered for an age with voters complaining about antisocial behaviour, plans for a casino and potholes. She gunned for Mrs Milton over a Tory leaflet quoting an anonymous person complaining that asylum-seekers get houses before local people. “It is just not true,” Ms Doughty said. “If you want to lead a community you have a responsibility to tell the truth.”

Mrs Milton said: “If you can’t bring up an important issue like this, you stop talking about everything.”

A blogger has been having great fun outing party activists who are featured on Mrs Milton’s leaflets as local people. “Politicians have to be very careful in this day and age,” she said and muttered opaquely that it was possible to use a photograph inadvertently. “I’m not going to talk about this blogger. He’s an angry young man.”

Ms Doughty levelled an even more extraordinary charge at her rival. “She’s not local, she’s from Reigate,” she said, as if the Conservative candidate hailed from Tierra del Fuego. The battle for Guildford is shaping up to be tremendous fun.

If your constituency is worth a closer look please e-mail damian.whitworth@thetimes.co.uk

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