Politicians up and down the country are getting ready for the next general election. While no date has yet been set,Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has eight months before the deadline runs out.

There are strong suggestions the tides could change across Kent and Simon Finlay caught up with one man hoping to play a part in that when the time comes.

When David Naghi was a lanky teenage schoolboy, he had a morning milk round before classes for a bit of pocket money in a household where things were usually financially tight.

The regular route started at County Hall, stopping first at Maidstone prison around the corner.

As the float clanked and clattered its way through the jail gates, a prisoner suddenly made a bolt for freedom before the officers could shut them.

The speechless young Naghi watched helplessly over his shoulder as the jailbird disappeared into the early morning sunshine.

To this day, he says, only one gate instead of two are opened at the prison.

"I've been dining out on that one for years," he guffaws as he takes a sip of coffee in the Nellie Gerkins Irish bar in the centre of Maidstone.

"But it did make me think, though, about why the bloke legged it out of the prison.

"Was it because he hated it so much inside that place that he just had to get out? But later, it made me realise I had to work hard and be honest and stay out of trouble."

Mr Naghi has been a constant in local public life for decades, a Liberal Democrat to the core; the sort of Lib Dem who shares a distaste for Conservatism more akin to a member of ‘old’ Labour.

David Sandru Naghi was born 67 years ago in New Jersey in the United States to a Romanian father and English mother. Dad was a manual worker who had settled in England after the Second World War.

The family lived in America for a time before returning to the UK at the start of the 1960s.

“Dad turned the malt at a local brewery in Maidstone,” he recalls. “That was one of his jobs.”

The young Naghi was just three when the family came back and has no memory of life in the States but retains dual citizenship for both countries.

“No queuing up for visas for me!”

He attended Vinters Boys school (now the much sought-after, non-selective Valley Park) and has run a small building business out of an ancient red van for most of the past three decades.

The divorced father of three can’t quite put his finger on why a working class man was drawn to the Lib Dems and not Labour.

“I suppose it’s because it is a left-leaning party, which chimes with my working class background. I always admired people like David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy - they were good people. Real people.

"The Labour Party isn't for working people any more. The Lib Dem candidates are rooted in their communities not parachuted in from London.”

He has won the support in his general election campaign for the Maidstone and Malling seat of Sir Robert Worcester, a fellow American and the MORI polling guru.

Sir Robert lent the Lib Dems the Great Hall at his Allington Castle home to launch Mr Naghi’s campaign on March 2.

These are often low-key events, very much designed to stir the passions of the local members and generally not for outsiders.

About 50 or so turned out on a foul Saturday morning to lend their support. It is hard to discern whether the faithful truly believe Mr Naghi can win but no one seems to think he doesn't have a chance.

One woman said: "No one thought Maidstone United would beat Ipswich, did they?"

He has roped in family and chums to run his campaign. The Lib Dems are not concentrating many resources on Maidstone and Malling as a “tier three” constituency (out of four).

So it is rather curious why the seat has, somehow, snuck onto the 'one to watch' list in Kent.

Formerly called Maidstone and the Weald, major boundary changes mean MP Helen Grant will have lost much of the true blue, Hunter welly brigade in the rural heartlands and inherited some altogether grittier wards in Malling. There are not too many Range Rovers in driveways on the estates.

Mrs Grant’s team will not be gravel-crunching their way round some of those wards, where its denizens have not prospered under a Conservative government in recent years.

A scan of the most recent local elections would indicate that there is a significant local Liberal Democrat vote in those areas.

Doyenne of Liberal Democracy in Malling, Trudy Dean, has already given Mr Naghi her support (and with it will come willing helpers), as has Peter Carroll, the Gurkha rights campaigner, who ran the incumbent close in 2010.

Pollsters at Electoral Calculus say it will be a narrow Labour gain, based largely on previous general election results.

Labour insiders say that "it would be nice to win" but Maidstone and Malling is not currently on the list of Kent target seats they need to achieve a majority at the general election. Gravesham, Gillingham & Rainham, Rochester & Strood, East Thanet and Dover & Deal are where the resources will be deployed.

One well-placed Labour activist says: "We can't do them all. If you try and do them all, you end up doing none. We're hoping to pick up others along the way if we have the national mood behind us.

“We will have very good candidates in every seat in Kent, rest assured of that. But we’ll have to wait and see."

Curiously, Labour has yet to announce a candidate for Maidstone and Malling.

Is Mr Naghi dusting down the "Labour can't win here" posters?

"No," he says carefully, "but it's obvious it will be a two horse race. I can’t take anything for granted and I know that I'll need some of the Labour and Green vote to win.

“Whether I can get them or not remains to be seen but I’ll try to make the case. After all, my views are not a million miles from theirs.”

He smiles.

“Look, I am realistic. Even with the boundary changes, Helen’s majority is still huuuuuuge.”

He’s not kidding. Mrs Grant, who started from humble beginnings herself to become a successful lawyer, an MP for 14 years and former government minister, is still tipped by many to get back in. However, her majority of 21,772 is, perhaps, notional at this point.

Mr Naghi pauses for a moment, distracted by someone who’s just walked in.

“Awright, Dave?,” bellows the chap in the corner coming off a shift as he’s poured a pint of Guinness. They exchange a few pleasantries.

This seems to happen quite a lot. From local politics, his youth work, collecting for the Royal British Legion (his late brother Peter served on HMS Intrepid in the Falklands War) or standing on the terraces at the Gallagher Stadium, the perpetually jovial Mr Naghi does not suffer a recognition problem. In Week Street, he bumps into friends and acquaintances every couple of minutes.

Some within the Conservative ranks in Kent do not foresee a catastrophe at the general election; thinking Sir Keir Starmer has not sealed the deal with the electorate; that the polls will tighten, the economy will pick up and oblivion will be averted.

Others, privately, feel they are simply “resigned” to their fate.

Whether the Tory vote will turn out is a major factor as is the presence of the Reform Party whose candidates may do better than anyone predicts without winning any seats.

It is clear that Mr Naghi is no fan of the Conservatives for the “damage they’ve done to this country and this county and this town”.

He seems very wary of attacking Mrs Grant personally.

“This past five years have been a shambles,” he says, deadly serious. “People’s lives have become very hard.

“The price of everything has gone up, the roads are clogged with cars all day long and housing developments are springing up everywhere. The trouble is that no one around here can afford to buy the houses.

“We haven’t got enough police to deal with the level of crime, the NHS is near collapse and the roads are covered in potholes that never seem to get fixed. The town centres are neglected and we have a government that can’t or won't stop a private company dumping raw sewage in the rivers. It’s…it’s…neglect. That’s what it is. Neglect.”

Checking himself, he lets out a gale of laughter and apologises for the rant.

With that, the Mr Naghi slips on his Maidstone United hat and heads off down Week Street, waving cheerily as he goes.

The other candidates currently standing in Maidstone and Malling are Helen Grant (Con), Stuart Jeffery (Green) and Paul Thomas (Reform UK).