The starting gun for the election campaign fired blanks for Mark Reckless at a hustings in front of business leaders this week.

A poll at the start and end of the debate on Tuesday, hosted by the FSB and KM Group, showed the outgoing Ukip MP trailing the Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens.

Kelly Tolhurst, the Conservative councillor who narrowly lost to him in a by-election last year, was far and away the favourite, taking 50% of the vote.

Even though the anonymous poll only featured about 40 participants, it would not have been easy reading for Mr Reckless, who triggered the by-election in Rochester and Strood when he defected from the Tories.

Key battlegrounds for the evening, chaired by KM Group political editor Paul Francis, were youth unemployment, apprenticeships, the availability of broadband for small firms and dealing with traffic chaos on the Medway City Estate.

Mrs Tolhurst said she would hope to get half the contracts for council work to go to local firms, while Mr Reckless said MPs had to make more effort to build relationships with small business, which do not lobby politicians because they are “too busy earning money”.

Labour candidate Naushabah Khan said she wanted to “end exploititive zero hours contracts”.

Lib Dem candidate Prue Bray, campaigning in the constituency for the first time, suggested creating an online network for small companies in Rochester to offer click and collect services.

Luke Balnave, standing in for Green Party candidate Clive Gregory, called for more people to use public transport to ease congestion on the Medway City Estate.