Having the opportunity to leave the office and spend a couple of hours canvassing with a parliamentary candidate is not something most local reporters have the chance to do very often.

However, with the general election campaign well and truly under way, I thought it would be a good idea to follow around hopefuls for the Epsom and Ewell seat.

I start with the former MP (sitting MP) and Conservative home affairs spokesman, Chris Grayling, who was campaigning in Ashtead on Friday (April 16).

His team, which includes Tim Hall, the election agent, local Mole Valley councillor Chris Reynolds, and candidate for Mole Valley Council, Howard Jones, begins the afternoon walking from door to door in a pleasantly green area of Ashtead, talking to residents or “knocking and dropping” leaflets.

The reception is mixed. While lots of voters do not even stutter before saying they will vote for him, some challenge him on several points and one woman shouts out she does not vote Conservative even before Mr Grayling can approach her.

He says: “We always get the odd voter who’ll say they’d never vote for us or the odd door slammed on the face. But these are minority – in general people are very polite.”

At one of the first houses we go to, Mr Grayling speaks with a supporter who questions him about the recent bed and breakfast episode, where he was recorded saying B&B owners should be allowed to turn away gay couples.

He says: “I have to admit I am a little fed up with this question. I thought long and hard about it and realised it was wrong. I don’t think B&Bs should be allowed to turn away gay couples. I have voted in favour of gay rights legislation in the past and that’s what I support - gay rights.”

In the course of the afternoon, I ask him about policy and whether he is confident he will be Home Secretary if his party wins the election.

He says: “I have no reason to believe otherwise, but I either am or I’m not. This is going to be a tight election and we need to work very hard to win. To be spending time on trying to know what will be done past that is just foolish.”

When it comes to policy, Mr Grayling speaks out about immigration, one of the hottest topics of these general elections.

He says: “One of the things I want to do is look at the deportation process. We need to check people whenever they get in and out of the country. The lack of checks and control, and the fact that there isn’t a system where the government can keep track of people when their visas expire are some of the reasons why we end up with cases such as the rapist who was due to be deported for a third time, ended up raping a teenage girl and is now in jail. We need to get people to leave when they should not be here.

“I’ve had people calling me to say they had lost their appeals to stay in this country and asking for my help, but I have to tell them that, if they lost their appeal, unfortunately they must leave. Then three years later I get the same people ringing me again to ask for help and all that time they have stayed in this country illegally.”

During our conversation, I also bring up the leaders’ debate, broadcast on ITV on Thursday (April 15), and Mr Grayling lets out nothing but praise to the performance of Liberal Democrats’ leader Nick Clegg - and to his own leader, David Cameron, of course.

He says: “I thought Gordon Brown looked much more wooden than David Cameron and Nick Clegg and he definitely looked lost. I think Nick Clegg clearly has the ability to challenge the other two parties and I think there’s no denying - we all have to admit he did very well. But David Cameron seemed sharp and focused and was the best of all three.

“Step away from party politics and you can see how important debates like this are for democracy. They attract a lot of extra interest in the election campaign from people who wouldn’t normally follow it.”

By the end of the day, Mr Grayling and his canvassing team are hoping to visit about 300 houses in Ashtead.

When I ask him whether canvassing teams usually manage to cover the whole constituency before the election, he says: “I think for a sitting MP it’s not what you do in the run up to the election but it’s an awful lot about what you have done over the years. So we do try to knock on as many doors as we can, but realistically we cannot visit every house in the constituency between now and the general election.”

So after two hours and a good 30 houses visited and checked – Mr Hall keeps a tick list rigorously updated with the residents’ response to whether they will be giving Mr Grayling their vote – I have to leave the Conservative team behind and return to the office.

I must admit that, for a first timer, to witness the campaigning process up close – where candidates take their time to talk to the people who matter – is nothing short of educational and somewhat exciting. It most definitely makes me look forward to following the other candidates on their election campaigns.