Tory hopeful Ben Gummer was getting a little help from his friends - including day John - today as the Conservative general election campaign took off in Ipswich.

IPSWICH: Tory hopeful Ben Gummer was getting a little help from his friends - including day John - today as the Conservative general election campaign took off in Ipswich.

A total of 13 MPs from East Anglia and the south east of England were due to descend on the town for the regional launch of the party's election campaign.

They were spending the morning and afternoon canvassing and leafletting throughout the marginal seat - and meeting up to compare notes over lunch at a town centre pub.

Ben Gummer said: "Within the next six months we will have the most important election for a generation.

“The campaign starts now. Politics is discredited, so it is up to us to go out there and show people what we have to offer.

“In David Cameron we have a leader who will deliver the change this country so desperately needs, and if they elect me, Ipswich will have a fiercely independent MP who will put the town first.

“It is now up to us to go out there, listen to people's concerns, and show that we have the energy and policies required to start putting things straight."

The MPs visiting the town are: Henry Bellingham, Christopher Fraser, Bernard Jenkin, Douglas Carswell, John Whittingdale, John Gummer, Tim Yeo, Chloe Smith, Mark Francois, Richard Bacon, David Curry, Oliver Heald, and David Evennett.

Their arrival did not concern the town's Labour MP Chris Mole who will be defending a 5,000-majority.

He said: “I am sure that come the election anything they have to say will pale into insignificance compared with what Labour has delivered for Ipswich over the last 12 years with the new university, further education college, sixth form centre, new hospital building and two new schools.”