You will doubtless be seeing a lot of Gareth Thomas, Nick Hurd and Tony McNulty over the next few weeks as they try to persuade you to give them your vote and return them to the House of Commons. JAMES CRACKNELL and DAVID BAKER have looked at their highs and lows in recent years

GARETH Thomas , 42, was elected MP for Harrow West in the New Labour election sweep of 1997, taking on a seat that had been Conservative for decades. In his first six years as an MP Mr Thomas remained on the backbenches, developing his involvement with the Co-operative movement and becoming the party's chairman in 2000 (Co-operative Party chairman). Like other Co-operative MPs, Mr Thomas remains a member of the Labour Party and indeed became parliamentary under secretary for the Department for International Development in July 2003.

This began a varied career in government that today sees him work as minister of state in the same department. As you would expect from a minister, Mr Thomas has followed the government in voting through contentious policies such as ID cards, student top-up fees, replacing the nuclear weapons system Trident and, of course, the Iraq war.

For Harrow West, Mr Thomas has supported the successful campaign to keep the cancer centre at Mount Vernon Hospital and continues to campaign for a new police station.

He also opposed the unpopular 19-storey Harrow 'skyscraper', which was later refused planning permission.

However, like many of his colleagues, Mr Thomas became embroiled in the expenses scandal last year. The Daily Telegraph revealed in May 2009 that he had billed the fees office for more than £1,000 for the cost of submitting his tax returns.

The result is that the Conservative Party is targeting Harrow West as a winnable seat on May 6. Mr Thomas's majority is 2,028 votes.

NICK Hurd , 47, was elected MP for Ruislip and Northwood in May 2005, following the retirement of long-term Conservative incumbent John Wilkinson. Mr Hurd quickly made an impression with his Conservative bosses. He was appointed shadow minister to the cabinet office in October 2008, before switching to the shadow department for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering in July 2009, where he has remained since.

If the Conservatives do take power in May, and Mr Hurd is re-elected, he is likely to be a part of the new government.

For Ruislip and Northwood, Mr Hurd claims he has made progress with a successful campaign to keep the cancer centre at Mount Vernon Hospital and with his consistent opposition to the third runway at Heathrow Airport.

In the House of Commons, meanwhile, Mr Hurd has followed the Conservative Party line in voting against ID cards, the smoking ban, for an inquiry into the Iraq war and for a climate change bill. He also followed Tory colleagues in supporting the replacement of the UK's nuclear weapons system, Trident.

Educated at Eton College and Oxford University, Mr Hurd is perhaps in the traditional Tory mould.

Indeed his father, Lord Douglas Hurd, served as Home Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's government.

Mr Hurd may also be boosted by the addition of the Conservative Pinner ward to his constituency, following boundary changes, where he aims to defend a healthy majority of 8,910.

TONY McNulty first won the Harrow East seat in 1997 after a 27-year Conservative stranglehold on the area.

After a short stint as parliamentary private secretary to David Blunkett and undersecretary to the office of the deputy prime minister, the 51-year-old served as a whip from 1999 to 2002.

In 2003 he was moved to the Department for Transport and was promoted the following year to minister of state for rail and London.

It wasn't long before Mr McNulty moved to the the Home Office, where he benefited from a cabinet reshuffle - becoming Minister of State for immigration.

This was followed by a stint as minister for policing and crime, security and counter terrorism and most recently employment and welfare reform.

Much like his colleague Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West, Mr McNulty has toed the party line on contentious issues such as ID cards, student top-up fees, the Iraq war and Labour's anti-terrorism laws.

Locally, Mr McNulty has backed Observer campaigns to save Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, and acquire a better settlement for Harrow Council, but bookies seem convinced that he will lose his seat after 13 years, largely because of his involvement in the expenses scandal and boundary changes to his constituency.

Despite a majority of 4,730 votes Mr McNulty's popularity was hit after a parliamentary watchdog ordered him to pay back £13,837 and apologise to fellow MPs for, according to the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, effectively using public cash to subsidise his parents' living costs.