Hundreds of aspiring British politicians have flown to America to cut their political teeth in the closing stages of the US Presidential campaign.

The young Brits on tour include a dozen Labour party researchers, four Conservative councillors, at least two prospective parliamentary candidates and more than 70 members of youth movements like Conservative Future, the Young Britons Foundation and the Young Fabian Society.

All are hoping to absorb some of the glitz and enthusiasm of the American political process - as well as picking up some useful campaigning tips to take home.

Tom Stoate, 24, a speechwriter for David Lammy MP, took a group of 10 Labour Party researchers to campaign for Barack Obama in North Carolina.

“The whole vibe is just incredible,” he said, speaking by telephone outside Shaw University, the first black University in the South. “We saved up to buy our plane tickets and we’re staying with local Democrats.

“The campaign office is filled with bacon, fried chicken and meatloaf. Everyone’s a crazy mixture of young hot shots from Yale and old black ladies."

Mr Stoate was put in charge of a volunteer operation designed to get the state’s African-American community to vote. “We must have knocked on 7,000 doors with only a couple of hundred people,” he said.

“The campaigning techniques are incredible. We’ve got a lot to learn in the UK. The directors’ ethos is obsessive: we don’t mind how you get votors - just get them. They tell you to ‘stay in your lane’, to do the job you’re assigned and keep your head down.”

His experiences indicate the commitment with which the Obama campaign has focused on voter turnout; as well as hinting at the path British politics could follow in the future.

Ministers from both parties have praised the “electrifying US campaign”. George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said the Conservatives would study the Obama campaign’s “phenomenal” use of the internet.

Robert-John Tasker, 23, a Conservative who was elected the youngest councillor in Britiain in 2006, flew out to help John McCain in Madeira, Ohio, on Wednesday.

He praised the McCain campaign’s advanced use of telephone canvassing and computer technology - Republicans use a programme called Vote Builder to identify key constituencies - but said he was most impressed by the optimism shown by McCain supporters, even in the face of defeat.

“An American lady asked me to come to her victory party on Tuesday night,” he said. “I thought: you’re probably not going to have a victory party. The Brits tend to be a lot more realistic. But that’s sometimes to our detriment.”

Nick Vaughan, 24, a Conservative councillor also in Ohio, said: “It’s the political glamour that stands out. People are queuing up with popcorn and hotdogs to see McCain. Would that happen with David Cameron? I don’t think so.”

And what of the American reaction to the young Britons? “Some look at us like we’re from the planet Zog,” said Mr Tasker. “But when we tell them what we’re doing here they love it.”

Times Recommends

• 'Devastating' abuse found amongst Aborigines
• LA profits from Michael Jackson stimulus
• Was Jörg Haider murdered?