Samantha Cameron, wife of the Conservative leader David, has joined the general election campaign trail on her own for the first time.

Mrs Cameron visited a social action project in Leeds and is expected to go to a similar scheme in East Yorkshire.

She said she wanted to highlight "the amazing things charities like this do".

Gordon Brown has already campaigned with his wife Sarah and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says his wife Miriam will join him campaigning one day a week.

'Empathetic'

Mrs Cameron spent about an hour visiting Caring For Life, a charity on a farm near Leeds which helps vulnerable adults.

She helped pot plants in one of the farm's greenhouses and spoke to some of those making walking sticks in the woodworking shed.

Asked if she had enjoyed the visit, she said: "I have thank you very much. I hope it highlights the amazing things charities like this do for some of the most vulnerable in society who tend to fall through the net."

Caring for Life is based in the constituency of Leeds North West, currently held by the Liberal Democrats.

She's the love of my life and we work well together Gordon Brown on his wife Sarah

Speaking after Mrs Cameron left, its chief executive and founder Peter Parkinson said: "I think that probably the experience they've had as a family has meant she has an empathy for the sort of people we are caring for.

"She was extraordinarily empathetic with all the people she met and also very interested."

Her husband promised that she would continue to play a role in the Conservatives' election fight and said she was "very supportive of what I do".

The Tory leader added: "She has her own job, her own career. She's an amazing wife and mother and businesswoman, but she's very committed to what I'm doing.

"She wants to get out there and support me, and that's why she's doing visits on her own today, out and about in the north of England, and we'll be doing other things together during the campaign."

'Working together'

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has also been joined by his wife Sarah on the campaign trail, saying he was looking forward to campaigning together.

He added: "She's the love of my life and we work well together."

But the wife of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said that she will not be playing a prominent role in the campaign.

"We are just married to the politicians. They are the ones that have the roles," Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, an international lawyer, told the BBC.

"They are the ones that have to come up with the policies to sort out the economic crisis that is hitting us all. And I think the role of anybody close to a politician I imagine everybody will want to help - I will want to help as much as possible but without giving up my life."

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