ANT hill snipping, scallop trawling and canvassing were all on the agenda yesterday as the Conservative campaign hit Weymouth and Portland.

Conservative candidate for South Dorset Richard Drax was joined for the day by former Defence Secretary Tom King as he went out and about in the constituency.

First on the agenda was raising Weymouth’s Town Bridge, before heading off for a walk along the harbour side. Mr Drax and Lord King met local scallop fishermen, walkers and a retired rifleman on his meet and greet visit.

Lord King had come down for the day to back Mr Drax, who he first met when Mr Drax was a reporter and interviewed him. Lord King said: “I met him when I came down here and I liked him then.

“The country is in a real mess and this government doesn’t deserve to go on. There will be a lot of problems left behind.

“We need a real government and real change. In some elections people would say that’s political talk but everyone knows we’re in a real mess.”

He added: “We’ve got to have new MPs in parliament, people that haven’t been tarnished by the expenses scandal. Dorset has an opportunity to make that happen here.”

The campaign continued with a trip to see Portland Coastwatch and the Portland Art Gallery, before visiting local crab and lobster fishermen.

Mr Drax then spent the afternoon with the Chiswell Community Trust on Portland. The trust is planning to create a community orchard and garden for Portland.

The site was derelict for 20 years before the trust took it over last June.

A new cider orchard has been planted and the site is now home to a colony of yellow meadow ants and the rare chalk blue butterflies. One of the Trust’s founders Margaret Somerville said that the last year’s transformation had been ‘very exciting, but very hard work’.

The Conservative volunteers were put to work, digging the allotments, snipping the tops off anthills and helping to clear land that will be used to plant buckwheat for two new beehives in the garden.

Mr Drax said: “I went to the launch of the gardens and thought we’d go back to help out.”

He added: “The Chiswell Community trust have proved what local action groups can do within a community.”