CONSERVATIVE Party chairman Grant Shapps was the latest party bigwig to visit a key election battleground in Hampshire.

He joined party Eastleigh candidate Mims Davies for a spot of door-knocking and canvassing in Elliot Rise, Hedge End, although one voter did shut their front door on him.

Mr Shapps said voters in Liberal Democrat-held Eastleigh were in a “privileged position” as they were in one of 23 seats his party were targeting as they seek the numbers to form a majority government.

He said: “Don’t throw away the opportunity to get the Prime Minister you want in Downing Street.”

When asked when his party would provide more detail on how its new pledges, including up to £8bn a year into the NHS, would be funded he said his party had gone into “significant detail about how we will achieve it”, highlighting annual saving targets of £13bn from individual Government departments, £12bn from welfare and £5bn from a tax evasion crackdown.

Ms Davies will face Lib Dem Mike Thornton, Labour’s Mark Latham, UKIP’s Patricia Culligan, the Green Party’s Ron Meldrum, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’s Declan Clune, and the Beer, Baccy and Scratchings’ Ray Hall in her battle for the seat.