It remains to be seen whether Chris Grayling’s recent faux pas will dent his popularity locally - he has one of the largest Tory majorities in England - although the shadow home secretary seems to have fallen out of favour with top Tories in recent months.

He took over the reins as Epsom’s MP in 2001 from Sir Archie Hamilton who fought his last election in Epsom in 1997 achieving a vote of 24,717. The Labour candidates Philip Woodford came in second place with a vote of 13,192.

Chris Grayling was elected in 2001 with a vote of 22,430 but boosted it in 2005 to a healthy 27,146 in an election which saw the labour candidate drop into third place behind local Lib Dem councillor Jonathan Lees with a vote of of 10,699.

The constituency of Epsom and Ewell includes Ashtead which lies within the Mole Valley District Council boundary, and Epsom Downs and parts of Banstead which lie in the area covered by Reigate and Banstead District Council.

Epsom and Ewell has remained resolutely Conservative since 1885 with Tory candidates being returned unopposed on six occasions.

The nearest it came to electing an MP from a different party was in 1906 when a Liberal candidate was just over 1,000 votes short of representing the constituency and in 1945 when the labour candidate came within 7,000 votes of reaching Westminster.

In Mole Valley Sir Paul Beresford was returned in the 2001 election with 23,790 votes with his nearest rival Celia Savage, Lib Dem coming in almost 10,000 votes behind. By the 2005 election Sir Paul had increased his vote to 27,060 with Lib Dems again coming in second place.

The constituency of Reigate and Banstead has remained in the hands of Crispin Blunt since 1997. His vote increased from 18,875 in 2001 to 20,884 in 2005 just failing to reach his peak of 21,123 in 1997 when outraged Tories marched to the polls to get rid of their MP Sir George Gardiner who had defected from the Conservatives to the Referendum Party.

The constituency which has elected six Liberal MPs since 1857 saw major boundary changes in 1974.

There are district council elections in both Mole Valley and Reigate and Banstead on May 6 although there are no council elections in Epsom and Ewell.

The wards being contested in Reigate and Banstead within the Guardian’s circulation area are Banstead Village, Chipstead Hooley and Woodmansterne, Kingswood with Burgh Heath, Nork, Tadworth and Walton and Tattenhams.

In Mole Valley the wards being contested are Ashtead Common, Ashtead Park, Ashtead Village, Leatherhead North and Leatherhead South.