Edward Davey had a majority of nearly 9,000 at the last election in 2005, but that has not stopped other candidates bidding to topple the popular Liberal Democrat.
The Conservatives' Helen Whately is his closest rival in the fight to become Kingston & Surbiton's next MP.
She moved to the borough from central London shortly after being announced as the party's parliamentary candidate in 2007. She grew up near Redhill, Surrey, and went to Westminster School, before studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University.
A mother of one, Mrs Whately now works as a management consultant for McKinsey, which is currently preparing reports for the NHS review of hospitals at the area. This is the report that sparked the local Lib Dem MPs' campaign to save Kingston Hospital. Ed Davey and Susan Kramer say they have been shown leaked pages of the report that point to the possible closure of the hospital's maternity and A&E departments, and health chiefs have admitted that is one of the scenarios they are investigating.
Mrs Whately claims to have no involvement in the report, saying she has arranged with her employers to be excluded from any work involving her prospective constituency. She has also accused the Lib Dem pair of scaremongering in the run-up to the general election but, alongside her Richmond Park colleague Zac Goldsmith, she was happy to pose alongside boss David Cameron on his recent visit to pledge his support for the hospital.
Education is a key issue in Kingston, with the local authority forced to create hundreds of temporary classrooms over the last couple of years. Mr Davey pushed for a debate in the House of Commons, which resulted in extra funding being made available to help fund extra places in the borough. Mrs Whately has been actively campaigning for a new primary school in Surbiton, and the council is now hoping to build one at the former Surbiton Hospital site.
Mrs Whately has centred much of her campaign around her party's strong position nationally, saying she could offer the area a voice in a Conservative government. She is the daughter of a doctor and a surgeon and, at just 32, with a successful career working with healthcare providers, she could well be looking for a place in the upper ranks of the Tory party.
Mr Davey, on the other hand, is already a well established, senior Lib Dem and has been their foreign affairs spokesman for the past two years. Along with local colleagues Vincent Cable and Susan Kramer, he emerged unscathed from the expenses scandal.
If re-elected, Mr Davey says he will continue with his campaign to protect the area's acute health services, as well as long term battle to persuade South West Trains and the Department for Transport to rezone Kingston and Surbiton train stations, from zone six to five, which would save local commuters hundreds of pounds.
Other candidates standing in the constituency are Labour's Max Freedman, Chris Walker of the Green Party, Jonathan Greensted of UKIP, the Monster Raving Loony Party's Monkey the Drummer and Anthony May, of the Christian Peoples Alliance, who have nominated 29 candidates in the local election.
In 2005 Mr Davey polled 25,397 votes to the Conservatives' Kevin Davis's 16,431. Labour candidate Nick Parrott received 6,553, UKIP's Barry Thornton 657, John Hayball of the Socialist Labour Party 366, and David Henson of Veritas 200.
