DAVID Cameron had a bag of pasties, cheese, jam tarts and a broad politician's smile as he left Tavistock following his whistle-stop tour of the town centre last Friday.

The Conservative leader was in Devon to kick-start his party's local and European election campaign.

Flanked by the Tory faithful — and a fair few of its hopeful — Mr Cameron strode into the pannier market precinct, a flock of photographers in his wake. He headed for Country Cheeses, where he chatted to owner Gary Jungheim, who gave him a hefty piece of local cheese.

Next on the itinerary was the market itself, where Mr Cameron made straight for the second hand book stall.

'You can learn a lot from her,' he said, immediately buying a copy of 'Margaret Thatcher — A Tory and Her Party' by Patrick Cosgrave for £1.

Squeezing his way through the packed pannier market, Mr Cameron was given a quick explanation about the Tavistock Country Market stall — not the WI, as he mistakenly called it — and bought a bag of jam tarts from Hilary Dawe, while commenting on the professional way the business was run.

He said at his home in West Oxfordshire, he 'never quite knew' where the farmers' markets were going to be next, as they seemed to move around so much.

He had to be reminded to pick up his change at Jane's Cakes, where he bought a bag of pasties, which were promptly passed back to an attentive aide.

Shaking hands left, right and centre, Mr Cameron seemed relaxed and pleased by the reception he was given by shoppers, some of them slightly startled to find the Tory party leader bearing down on their Friday market visit.

'That was David Cameron wasn't it?' was one of the most frequently heard asides as many did a double take, straining to see the politician's retreating back past the excited local party members racing after him.

Painters taking a lunch break from work to re-furbish the town's old Woolworth's store seemed slightly nonplussed as Mr Cameron stopped to shake hands — luckily not tinged with the buildings's new, suitably blue, shopfront.

Roger Bird in Palmer's Butchers was asked what his speciality was, and how important traceability was in his meat, in the battle of independent shops versus big supermarkets.

It was not long before Mr Cameron got his wallet out once again — revealing, perhaps, a weakness for pastry.

'Let's have one of your pasties then,' he said. 'Full of beef — that's what we like!'

Another stalwart family business was next to get the Cameron treatment, as the Tory leader visited Crebers, and was shown the old family pictures in pride of place in the delicatessen.

Mr Cameron said he had not been to Tavistock since he was little — but that it was a lovely town.

'It's good to see you have such good quality shops here. We don't want to see towns with identical high streets, we don't want to lose our towns' characters,' said Mr Cameron, who said it was important people used independent traders in order to keep family businesses alive.

Referring to the recent uproar regarding MPs expenses, the politician launched into tub-thumping mode.

'The public are rightly upset about this — they have to have some explanations.

'Everyone should explain why they claim and for what. Where people have broken the rules, that needs to be looked into,' said Mr Cameron. 'The whole system needs to change.'

Mr Cameron accepted that in a rural area like West Devon, jobs and housing were serious issues.

He blamed the current 'top down' planning system for some of the problem, where central government policy dictated housing allocation. He said more control should be given to local authorities, to promote 'a rennaissance of English villages'.

Giving interviews on the pavement outside the Tavistock branch of Dorothy Perkins must have seemed a world away from Westminster and the corridors of power.

But for Mr Cameron, striding off to his waiting car, parked (illegally) in the loading bay, the coming month will be packed with such lightning visits.

Wonder if he claimed those jam tarts on expenses?