THE scramble for votes by politicians during the general election campaign has left Kent Police with an overtime bill for more than £40,000, the Kent Messenger Group can reveal.

The bill, which will fall to the council taxpayer to pick up, covers the costs of deploying more than 300 uniformed and plain clothes officers to provide security and to escort visiting politicians during the four-week long campaign in April and May.

The overall costs can be assumed to be even higher because several VIPs were accompanied by their personal protection officers from the Metropolitan Police.

Kent’s 16 parliamentary constituencies were a key electoral battleground and the county saw a steady stream of high-profile figures making visits to marginal seats right up to polling day.

Prime Minister Tony Blair made three official visits to the county while Conservative leader and Folkestone and Hythe MP Michael Howard made several speeches across Kent. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy came just once but scores of other ministers and shadow ministers poured into the county to drum up support for their party’s prospective candidates.

They included Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who visited three times and Chancellor Gordon Brown, who came twice.

The costs were disclosed following a KM Group request made using the Freedom of Information Act.

Kent Police has confirmed its overtime bill for covering 41 official visits amounted to £40,799. The costs were chiefly for officers on the ground. In the case of some VIP visits, the costs also involved security vetting of premises.

Kent Police provided more than 100 officers to cover election activity in Dover and Folkestone and Hythe, Mr Howard’s constituency.

Mr Blair made a keynote speech on asylum and immigration at the Port of Dover in the middle of the campaign but the constituencies were visited by several other high-profile figures from all three main parties.

Kent Police say 315 officers were on election duties at various times in the county during the campaign. In north Kent, 41 officers were deployed over the four weeks; 29 in west Kent and 25 in the Medway Towns.

In a statement, assistant chief constable Dave Ainsworth said: "Kent Police does not get additional funding for the elections. However contingency funds are established each year for forseeable events. This year, the funds set aside adequately covered our requirements. We have a duty to facilitate free and fair elections in a safe environment, working with election officials at polling stations and ensuring that all participants observe the law, for example by investigating allegations of postal voting fraud."