There are seven candidates contesting the Maidstone and the Weald constituency.

Conservative Helen Grant won the seat last time with a majority of 5,889, but with the surge of support for Ukip and the intervention by local doctor Paul Hobday and Independent Robin Kinrade, this seat is probably the most difficult in the county to predict.

We take a look at all the candidates.

Jasper Gerard (Lib Dem)

Mr Gerard was born in Tenterden and currently lives with his wife Diana and two children in Laddingford. Educated at a comprehensive, he graduated in philosophy from Durham University and joined the Sunday Times as a trainee journalist. He subsequently worked for The Times, Observer and the Daily Telegraph, but gave up his job in February 2013 to campaign full-time in the constituency.

He has supported various local campaigns, particularly over unwelcome housing schemes in such places as Fant Farm, Cripple Street and Oakwood Park. He has also taken up the issue of train fares on behalf of commuters.

He said: “One of the reasons I felt compelled to stand for election was our Tory council’s plans to plaster 14,600 houses indiscriminately across Maidstone and the Weald, without any thought for school places, doctors’ waiting lists or traffic gridlock.”

Mr Gerard found himself brought up by a single parent after his parents divorced, and said the hardship they experienced had made him determined to increase life chances for children.

He said he was proud of the concessions the Liberal Democrats in Coalition had been able to secure, adding: “Nick Clegg has given more than £1m a year extra to help teach disadvantaged Maidstone children, with more money for early learning, child care and apprenticeships.

“Liberal Democrat ministers have taken more than 6,000 low-paid Maidstone workers out of tax entirely, which shows what our party is all about: helping those who have previously felt helpless to help themselves.”

Helen Grant (Con)

Helen Grant has been Maidstone’s MP for the past five years; during that time she has served as Minister for Justice, Minister for Women and Equalities and is currently Minister for Sport and Tourism. Born in London and raised on a council estate, she is a solicitor and had her own practice in Croydon. She is married with two sons. Her husband Simon has twice worked for her in her constituency office.

She suffered controversy in November 2012 after claiming expenses of £1,666 a month for London living allowance as her Maidstone constituency entitles her to. However, Mrs Grant says although she owned a property in Surrey, she was not living there at the time and it was on the market.

Her husband Simon also resigned from her office staff the same year after a contract bungle involving employees' sickness benefit which was later attributed to an internal oversight by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. He has since re-joined.

Mrs Grant is standing on a six-point campaign: Protecting the countryside from inappropriate housing developments, preserving the NHS, supporting the community, caring for the elderly, boosting local business and improving schools.

She said: “There is a genuine and growing housing need in Kent which must be delivered, but we need the right numbers in the right locations with the right infrastructure.”

On schools, she said: “I am committed to ensuring schools across Maidstone and the Weald have the facilities and funding they need. In the last 12 months, I have actively supported government bids for three Maidstone schools and lobbied hard for the funding needed to build a new primary school in Benenden.”

Paul Hobday (National Health Action Party)

Paul Hobday was a GP for 30 years until he retired from his Sutton Valence surgery in 2013, saying he had “growing misgivings” about changes in the way public healthcare was being provided.

He warned that the services that support NHS General Practice, such as looking after medical records and maintaining practice lists, prescription payments, and screening programmes, were all to be run by private companies from next year and he called for a return to the basic principles of the National Health Service, with free, universal and comprehensive healthcare.

The 58-year-old from Horsmonden said: “I am against the waste that the market system has introduced; they are selling healthcare like cornflakes. Competition has replaced co-operation and studies have shown this is wasting £5-to-£10billion a year.

“This Coalition’s top-down ‘reforms’ of the NHS have wasted another £3billion.”

Dr Hobday, married with three daughters, is an executive committee member of the National Health Action Party which is fielding 13 candidates across the country. He said: “Our number one purpose is to raise public awareness of what is happening to the NHS.

“The Health and Social Care Act is changing the whole basis of the NHS and it’s time that all the major parties came clean about this.”

But Dr Hobday insisted the NHAP was not a single-issue party. He said: “We have many other policies, but they are all health-focussed.”

The party’s other policies include: ending student tuition fees, addressing the shortage of primary school places, investing in social housing, and rejecting the austerity policies that “unfairly penalised the most vulnerable.”

It also wants to reform Parliament by ending the party whip system, introducing proportional representation and lowering the voting age to 16.

Robin Kinrade (Independent)

Robin Kinrade is 61 and a widower with two adult children. He runs his own book-keeping and accountancy company serving mostly small traders in the town. He has previously stood as candidate in the borough council elections on behalf of the Green Party.

Mr Kinrade, of Kingsgate Close, Maidstone, has not responded to requests to supply us with information on the policies on which he is standing.

Hannah Patton (Green)

Hannah Patton is a 28-year-old youth worker at the Switch Cafe in Maidstone. She lives with partner Greg Clark in Maidstone and is a former member of the Youth Parliament.

Miss Patton is putting young people at the heart of her campaign. She said: “Young people have a lot to offer, but the younger voter is under-represented in Parliamentary discussions. The future is starting to look bleak for young people: climate change is beginning to shape our weather while government has been hell-bent on trying to force pupils through a one-size-fits-all education system that leaves them disillusioned and ill-prepared for the future.

“Focusing education on skills for the future is essential. We want them not just to be able to pass exams, but to learn how to be good citizens.”

Ms Patton, a graduate from Canterbury Christ Church University, opposes fracking and wants policies to encourage people to walk and cycle and leave the car at home. She is in favour of the EU and said: “It has given us some valuable legislation.”

On immigration, she said: “We don’t have an immigration policy, we have a migration policy. I believe in the freedom of movement; afterall this country has been built with the help of the many people who have come to our shores over the generations.”

She is opposed to “the creeping privatisation” of the NHS.

On a local note, Miss Patton has concerns about new house-building on greenfield sites. She said: “Wherever possible brownfield land should be used first, and far more should be done to bring disused and derelict properties back into the housing stock.”

She also wants to see improved legislation to give greater security to those in rented accommodation.

Eddie Powell (Ukip)

Eddie Powell is a Harrietsham businessman and founded his own marketing company in 1994. He was among the first ever Ukip borough councillors to be elected to Maidstone council last May, and leads his party group on the council.

Born and brought up in Kent, he lives with his partner Lorraine, and the pair have four grown-up children. Mr Powell is currently a freelance consultant advising on business sales and purchases.

He is in favour of withdrawing from the EU, which he said would save the country £53m a day, money that could be spent elsewhere, notably on improving the NHS. He said: “I believe Britain must get back control over its borders so that it can welcome people who will make a positive contribution, while limiting the overall numbers of migrants and keeping out those without the skills or aptitudes to be of benefit to the nation.”

He supports grammar schools and said every bright child should have the opportunity to go to one.

He said: “We promote independence from government interference. We believe in free trade, lower taxes, more personal freedom and responsibility.”

“A vote for Ukip is a vote to leave the EU and recover power over our national life.”

He said he believed in returning power to the people and wanted to see a system of binding local and national referenda, so that the people had the direct power to determine major issues.

He wants to see an end to foreign aid and a return to weekly bin collections.

On a local level, he is opposed to the housing targets. He said: “There should be no building on greenfield sites.”

Allen Simpson, (Labour)

Former Maidstone Grammar School pupil Allen Simpson was originally from East Malling but currently lives in Dulwich. He is married to Katy, a former MGGS pupil.

The 31-year-old graduated from York University and worked for a while in the House of Commons before joining the Stock Exchange and subsequently Barclays Bank.

His chief concern is to promote business to bring more high quality jobs to the town and to cut unemployment and he favours setting up low-cost business start-up zones. He supports more house-building and backs the town’s housing target of 18,600 new homes, saying: “It is where to place these new houses that is the main issue.

“Too often, we have seen council-led vanity projects to develop new shopping areas, and haphazard house building, often in inappropriate areas.

“This is the wrong approach. What Maidstone needs is a serious plan for bringing jobs to the town, and to identify a sustainable approach to the housing issue. That is why I am campaigning for two important changes in strategy.

“First, to bring light industry back to the town. Maidstone has a long history making things which were sold over the country and the world.

“Second, to work with the community to find a site for a major housing development. The infill-approach to squeezing houses into tiny spaces in the town centre is not working. It damages the quality of life for everyone. I believe the solution is to build a ‘Kings Hill for Maidstone’, and create a new town with good housing, transport, facilities and even offices.”

“We also need to protect our local services self-defeating cuts and mismanagement.

“Maidstone has a long history as a booming economy. With the right leadership, our town can thrive again.”