Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith joined in sports day practice and painted a picture during a visit to a school.

Mr Duncan Smith spent more than an hour talking to children at Townsend Primary and Nursery School, in Bournemouth, after making a major speech to the Local Government Association's annual conference in Bournemouth.

Pupil Jade Cole was the first youngster bold enough to ask: "Who are you?" The opposition leader replied: "I'm a chap called Iain Duncan Smith."

He also sat in on a class discussing the worst excuses for not doing homework and revealed: "Once I fell asleep in a field with an essay and a cow actually did eat it."