And the winner is...?

I meet Angela Smith, minister for the third sector and MP for Basildon and East Thurrock, in the central lobby of the Houses of Parliament. It's been quite a mission to snare a free hour in her diary and it happens to have fallen on the day after another scandal for Westminster - the previous night Channel 4's Dispatches programme had caught former ministers and MPs on tape bragging of their willingness to act as paid lobbyists.

I expect her to be in a grizzly mood, angry with her colleagues and with journalists. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth - Smith is positively buzzing. 'You know those days when you get in early and you just get on a roll, I've got so much work done today,' she says as she whisks me to the tea room. What's more, with the high of a fulfilling morning behind her Smith is as jolly as I've ever seen her. She has a broad smile and a 'Hi, Keith' for the waiter and with great good humour tells me what I least want to hear.

'I've had a look at the questions you emailed and, as much as I'm sure you'd love me to, what I can't do is give you an exclusive on the manifesto.'

What this means is that Smith won't be drawn on specific pledges. In answer to my question about the policies she believes will attract the social enterprise vote (see right) she is clear to point out that these are all general areas that the government is already working on and plans to develop further. For my three 'Do you support...?'questions I ask Smith to speak not as the minister but simply as an MP - but she refuses. 'I'm like a stick of rock: wherever you cut me there's still the third sector minister running through.'

On the question of what monetary support an incoming Labour government would give the sector she simply says: 'We really do understand the issues around the need for greater investment and the pressures and barriers.'

Instead, what Smith will talk about is the difference in approach between Labour and the Conservatives.

Regarding social enterprises and their role in delivering public services Smith says: 'I'm not one of those people who see it as an either/or situation and I'm uncomfortable with the argument "social enterprise good, public sector bad" or vice versa. I think both are most effective when they focus on outcomes for individuals and when they work together.'

She believes Tory proposals lack guarantees that public services are being opened up for the benefit of social enterprises and charities and not for the benefit of private companies - which could more easily bid for contracts.

'One of the things I'm looking at, with other ministers, is the barriers to the third sector in getting contracts - things like the size of contracts and being involved in co-designing the services - because just by saying you want something to happen doesn't make it happen.'

I point out that the Conservatives view their policies of letting third sector organisations make a profit on contracts and payment by results as appropriate steps but Smith disagrees.

'I think what makes things happen is when you don't just look at price but at quality and what extras social enterprise bring to the table. If you only start negotiating around price I think you lose the very essence of social enterprise.'

Smith later reveals that she's 'very much attracted' to social clauses that could be used in contracts to guarantee social outcomes as well as, for example, the rubbish getting picked up.

'If we're going to award contracts on quality and effectiveness and not just price we need to take this head on,' she says.

But for Smith social enterprise is not all about public services. She's keen to point out that there are plenty of social enterprises that don't deliver public services and don't want to - and they need government support too. 'I find the Tories' focus on public services so short sighted,' she says. 'They are looking at part of the impact of social enterprise and not of it. My fear is that the Tories are looking for other organisations to deliver public services on the cheap. I'm looking to work with social enterprises to be as effective as possible.'

Smith believes Labour's policies on social enterprise will help the nation because the party is 'absolutely convinced' that social enterprise is a 'win, win, win' situation delivering good economic, social and environmental outcomes.

As for Labour's credentials she points to the work already done while in government, such as the direct investment in the School for Social Entrepreneurs, social impact bonds or the Future Jobs Fund, which has just been extended for another year. 'That shows our commitment and direction of travel,' says Smith.

In terms of personal credentials I already knew of Smith's history working in the voluntary sector for 12 years, most notably at the League Against Cruel Sports - what I hadn't realised was that her first job as an MP, before Labour took office, was to help Alun Michael, the MP for Cardiff South who was then shadowing the minister responsible for the third sector. Smith worked on the first draft of the Compact.

However, the story that seems to tell most about Smith's personal commitment to social enterprise is the fact that in December she went to a local school's awards ceremony and was asked to tell the pupils about something inspiring -she chose to speak about Divine Chocolate and social enterprise ambassador Sophi Tranchell.

'I was worried that it would be too complicated, or that my passion wouldn't come across, but a lot of parents and kids came up to me afterwards and said they really liked it.

'I ask if her support for social enterprise is a vote winner in her constituency (Smith's majority in Basildon and East Thurrock, where she lives and grew up, is 3,142, but boundary changes will work against her at this election).

She says she supports local social enterprises because they are good for the community, but as her interest keeps her close to her constituents there may be some payback in votes - although that is not her motivation. She adds that most people would be supportive of social enterprise if it was explained to them but 'while large sectors of the public are enthusiastic others don't understand it'.

This lack of understanding is perhaps one reason why Smith is a supporter of the Social Enterprise Mark, which is intended to raise the visibility of social enterprise to the public.

Smith says she has a 'very neglected husband' who most weeks she doesn't see from Monday to Thursday. Luckily, as a fellow politician - a councillor for Basildon District Council - he's fairly understanding and doesn't seem to mind the fact that51-year-old Smith is obviously a worker bee. She also tells me she would prefer to sit on the backbenches than take a job she wasn't passionate about.

'I was in the fortunate position of having the PM ask me what job would I like to do and in the next breath saying "What about minister for the third sector?" - which is exactly what I would have chosen.'

Smith is always in a rush. 'I've been that way since I was five,' she says as she apologises for how quickly she speaks as I furiously scribble down quotes.

In this job she has had two additional reasons to hurry. First, there is the problem of a looming election. 'I came to this job last June so I knew I had about a year, that's why I've been really keen to move things forward. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster.' Second, is the economic crisis and the mood of the public. 'I think the public is ready for more than "business as usual", government is more receptive then it ever has been and I also think the social enterprise sector is getting itself into a place where it can take on more and there's much more consensus about the need for social investment with the sector setting out and showcasing what it does. It's the opposite of a perfect storm, it's a perfect opportunity.'

Does she think she will still be minister for the third sector if Labour wins the election? 'I'd love to be. There's a lot more to do, but first I've got to see what the voters think and then the prime minister.'

Interview by Chrisanthi Giotis

'I love everything about Blue Sky,' says Nick Hurd, shadow minister for charity, social enterprise and the voluntary sector, as he talks about asocial enterprise that inspires him over a scalding hot cup of tea in a closing café.

'It's led by a man who used to be an investment banker. He's a guy who's come out of the traditional money making private sector and decided to spend the rest of his life doing good.'

I manage to grab just 20 minutes of Hurd's time, in a break from a Tory summit organised by the Association ofChief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, on the premise that I need to get to know the man behind the MP.

Blue Sky - a place where you can only get a job if you've got a criminal record -is based in Hurd's Ruislip constituency and under pins his passionate advocacy of social enterprise. It also sums up everything the Tories love about it: it's a business, it's got connections with the private sector and banking, it's local andit's reducing the re offending rate.

Stopping former offenders returning to jail is one of the big visions for the Tories, traditionally seen as the party of the privileged and affluent. At the summit, ten Tory MPs with shadow portfolio srepeatedly stressed that social enterprises could meet offenders at the prison gates and turn their lives around before they even had a chance to go back to their criminal ways. This could have a huge impact on the 60 per cent of 90,000prisoners released in England and Wales every year who find themselves back in jail within two years and the £12 bnannual cost of re offending.

And it's easy to see why Hurd praises Blue Sky, established by the charity Groundwork Thames Valley. Its commercial contracts meet around 60 percent of its running costs and almost half its participants are still in employment after three months. As Blue Sky's website states: 'Employment reduces the re offending rate by 33-50 per cent, but 75 per cent of ex-offenders have no job on release.'

'It's also a model that can be replicated,' says Hurd, talking casually following a full day in the spotlight. 'Every local authority can create a Blue Sky. I talked to a guy who travelled the whole Central Line every day because he said working for Blue Sky was his way out. He was trying to prove to an employer that he could do it. It works.'

Not only that, but it fits snugly into the Tory vision for the third sector and public service delivery, such as its payment by results initiative, encouraging community co-ops to the point where local people can run their own Job centre,  and targeted tax incentives. The Tories also aim to reform the commissioning process and increase the length of public service contracts to five years.

Face-to-face and via numerous emails Hurd doesn't want to be pinned down on his party's top policies for social enterprise, leaving me to pick them out from Social Enterprise's past stories. Instead, he refers me to a recent speech made at a hustings with the other MPs in this feature. He does, however, roll off his 'priorities': reducing red tape to make it easier for people to run charities and social enterprises; getting more re sources into the sector - 'more time and more money, the sector is ravenous for both' -and more social investment.

'There's a growing market of social investment. We need to encourage the intermediaries and we can do that by creating financial products, but they need support. We have the social impact bond, which is a beautiful illustration of how it can be done,' he says. However, he again dismisses the idea of introducing legislation to force banks to invest in their communities.

The former whip refers me to the speech again to stress his party's support for a social investment wholesale bank, which he says the current government has 'dithered' on. 'We think it could do so much to grow this really important market of social investment - investors who are prepared to consider a blend of financial return and social impact - by strengthening the intermediaries that will make this market work and connect people who want to invest for good with people who want to do good,' he says.

This blend of business, investment and social good is a drive for Hurd, who says he 'loves' the charities, social enterprise and volunteering brief David Cameron gave him in 2008. Before starting his political career in 2005, he spent 18 years in business, five of which were in Brazil setting up an investment bank.

He moved to Sao Paulo with his wife, Kim, and two young children. Two more were born in Brazil and spoke Portuguese before English. 'It was a different but amazing way of life,' Hurd says as we finish our brief interview. 'You don't see poverty here on the scale of Rio and its slums, but there was a time when I was in my car and suddenly there was a gun pointed at me.'

On his return in 1999, he wanted to setup a charity, but the Hurd family tradition came calling (his father is former home secretary Lord Hurd and his grandfather and great grandfather were also in Parliament).

Yet Hurd, the epitome of a Cameron era Conservative, carrying a man-bag and wearing the same friendship bracelet made by his daughter that I saw him wearing six months ago, dismisses the idea that it was his privileged background and family connections that led him to become an MP.

'I came into politics to improve lives; itsounds coy, but that's what drives me.' Find out more about Blue Sky atblueskydevelopment.co.uk

Interview by Gemma Hampson

I'm sat in a meeting room in Portcullis House with some very posh Conservative MPs, some slightly less posh Labour MPs, a not posh at all Lib Dem MP - Charles Kennedy, in fact - and the very normal sounding Lib Dem shadow social enterprise minister Jenny Willott. They're making lots of in-jokes and, lucky for them, I can't really understand what they're on about. Except that one (not Willott or Kennedy) thinks Nick Clegg's wife looks a bit 'wacky'.

I'm spending the afternoon shadowing Willott. A noon board meeting about Parliament's weekly magazine The House is first on the agenda. It's very relaxed, Willott has her feet up on the chair next to her at one point. Kennedy looks flushed and jolly. During the hour-long meeting there is occasional chat about magazine content between laughs. The editor looks part frustrated, part-resigned.

Over lunch, I ask Willott about everyone being so matey. 'Parliament is really not like people think from seeing it on the telly. Weget on much better than you'd imagine,' she explains.

The 35-year-old spends half her week in Parliament and the rest in her constituency in Cardiff Central. She grew up in Wimbledon, studied classics and did an MSc in development studies. During this time she developed a strong interest in overseas development, human rights and social justice and got into politics aged 23.

In her time, Willott has worked for Barnardo's, Unicef and a charity in India. When she was elected to Parliament in2005, she was head of Victim Support South Wales and had been living in Cardiff for five years.

Today, I have five hours to find out whether she would make a good minister for the sector. With a hung parliament looking increasingly likely, there's a good chance she could at least get a decent say in social enterprise policy.

When I ask what social enterprise means to her party, she tells me about the 'fabulous example of a social enterprise', Track 2000 in Cardiff, that recycles old furniture and employs disadvantaged people. Unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, is higher in Wales than the rest of the UK. 'Getting people into work is the number one issue facing people in my constituency and something social enterprise can have a really positive impact on,' she says.

Another interesting point is that Wales' population is older that the rest of the UK. 'We will need more carers and this is another area where social enterprises can be particularly effective. '

But her constituents, she says, are not interested in who delivers services or provides jobs, just the outcomes. She doesn't seem to know of any new social lenterprises in Cardiff and says the existing ones don't come to her much for advice. Willott also says she hasn't come across the new Welsh Social Enterprise Coalition and was disappointed not to make it to social enterprise conference Voice10 in Cardiff in February. I don't think this shows lack of commitment, but I get the impression that Willott's portfolio is so wide - she isresponsible for all sorts of random commitments, like government IT - that she probably doesn't get the chance to throw herself into social enterprise.

So why aren't the Lib Dems letting someone focus specifically on social enterprise and the third sector? Perhaps it's because social enterprise is ingrained into the Lib Dems' vision for the UK, according to Willott. 'The preamble to our constitution is about empowering communities and involving them in making their own decisions. People have complained in the past that the Liberal Democrats haven't had a policy on the third sector, but it runs through everything we do,' she explains.

The Lib Dems seem to broadly support what Labour is doing on social enterprise, although they would do some things a little differently and move ideas like the social investment wholesale bank forward a bit more speedily (and use an existing provider like Charity Bank). They also support the Social Enterprise Coalition's recently published manifesto.

After lunch we attend a Welsh Lib Dem scatch-up meeting, then it's off to the main hall to greet some residents from the localsynagogue in Willott's constituency who are on a tour of Parliament, before sitting down for a meeting with a woman from Charities Evaluation Services.

She wants to tell Willott about the work the charity is doing and hopefully gain her support. Willott asks a couple of questions and gives her a good chunk of her time, but I can't tell whether she is particularly interested or not. In fact, Willott is relatively straight-faced and moderate for the whole afternoon. She doesn't do the evangelising about social enterprise that I expected to see. Perhaps with a 10pm finish she is merely conserving energy.

After the best part of five hours it's time to leave. I normally come out of an interview either loving or hating the interviewee. I simply liked Willott. There is nothing not to like - she is genuine, decent and has an affinity for the sector, but she could come across as having a bit more fire in her belly for social enterprise.

Perhaps I'm just used to being around activists, but we do need our MPs to keep making people really excited about social lenterprise's potential if we want to continue to edge the sector into the mainstream.

Interview by Claudia Cahalane

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