WILTS TIMES, APRIL 22: DR ANDREW Murrison has had four years' experience as an MP for west Wiltshire and his skill and professionalism were obvious as he sped around on the campaign trail.

It was hard to keep up with the energetic 43-year-old, as he zoomed around Trowbridge's Drynham ward on Monday evening knocking on as many doors as possible.

Dressed in a Barbour jacket with a huge blue Conservative rosette he charged from house to house with earnest enthusiasm.

He said: "I'm one of these people who doesn't use the escalator and tends to rush upstairs. I don't like to waste time."

It must be an essential skill for a man with five daughters to have boundless energy. The former navy doctor lives in London during the week while Parliament sits and returns to Wiltshire for constituency work at the weekends, where one of his priorities is to fight for local hospitals.

He said: "It leaves little time for the family very often which is a pity but I have a tremendous wife who manages to cope with it.

"Family is very important and communities are important as well. Most people's concerns when they are in their 20s, 30s and 40s have to do with the welfare of their family, such things as health and education."

As Dr Murrison, who secured 42.1 per cent of the vote in the 2001 election ahead of the Lib Dems (31.6 per cent), knocked on door after door, he got varying responses but most people agreed that when he spoke he was convincing and genuine.

Susan Carpenter, of The Croft, asked him about pensions and immigration. The 57-year-old, who will be voting Conservative and always has, said: "I'm not racist. If they come over here to work everybody is welcome but it's the ones who shouldn't be here that we don't like."

Second time voter James Chant, 23, a chef, quizzed Dr Murrison about immigration and healthcare.

He said: "I quite like his views but I haven't decided how I'm going to vote yet."

Engineer Jon Bryland, 34, who has not decided which way he will vote, said: "He seems a nice genuine chap."

But he said he was worried at the lack of investment the Conservatives had put into the manufacturing industry.

Gerald Robinson, 59, of Carlton Row, will be voting Conservative. He said: "The gap is too big between Labour and the Conservatives. It needs to be smaller because Labour can do what it likes."

Not everybody was supportive. One man screamed from his doorstep that the Conservatives had almost bankrupted him when they were last in power.

Driving instructor Sarah Mackenzie, 22, said Dr Murrison had agreed with her that it was about time there was a cinema in Trowbridge.

She is not sure whether she will vote.

"I haven't made up my mind yet. It depends whether I get up in time before I go to work," she said.

Speaking while walking at full speed towards another house and another potential voter, Dr Murrison summed up his political aspirations.

"My aim has been to be a good constituency MP and it's really heart warming when people say they will be voting for me because I have their interests at heart. That is what being an MP is all about."