My Day Twenty Eight

I started the day on the GMTV sofa doing a joint TV interview with Gordon.  This is a big first for me and I am actually very nervous although being with Gordon who has been a sofa regular over many years does make it a bit easier.

We are talking to Lorraine Kelly whom I admire very much for her generous spirit and deep commitment to cancer charities – she has been a great Moonwalker and just recently did the London Marathon - so big respect for that.

Gordon and I talk about the recent campaigning weeks together, and I share my experiences of meeting people in their workplaces, homes and on the high street (regular readers of my blog will be up to speed on all this so I don’t need to repeat it here, but here’s the link if you are interested.

I also see a copy of this week’s Grazia Magazine where I have given another interview just before the Manchester Leader’s Debate on the economy, you can read it here. I know that people understand that I don’t court media attention for its own sake, but this election has been a time where I want to do all I can to get the Labour message out.

Just two days away from polling day we have a busy schedule as Gordon sets out to visit many parts of England, Wales and Scotland over 48 hours. We travel directly from the GMTV studios to Euston station to take the train to Coventry and on to Leamington Spa.

Ed Balls and Ross Kemp join us at Warwickshire College where the students are all lined up to give us a very loud welcome. Ross has just done a new election broadcast for Labour - which you can see below. It is fantastic that so many of the students are interested in engaging with the election and to listening to Gordon talk about the important issues that the country faces this year. The question and answer session chaired by Ross enables students to put forward their thoughts about opportunities for jobs, the EMA and access for more students. The first question comes from a young women whose 18th birthday is 5th May (just in time to vote) and the final question from a student of journalism - so I hope that interviewing the PM helps kick-start her career.

We travel on to the ASDA store in Telford and Gordon is completely overwhelmed by the friendly crowd entering the store. He joins the ASDA colleagues talking to them and taking questions standing on a big red (of course!) pallet in the back of the store..

The questions here were about very specific cases with a big focus on child tax credits, and an interesting question from a young woman keen to see cervical cancer screening become available below even the current screening age of 25 years. I am a big fan of keeping healthy through good screening and preventative programmes and very proud of our government’s record in the NHS with making cervical, bowel and breast cancer screening more available. Gordon promises that he will look into it to see what more can done if he is returned to government.

We travel on to Wrexham University and join Labour’s candidate Ian Lucas to meet more students here. We get a terrific Welsh welcome here and I have a nice chat with John Prescott’s brother Ray who has been having fun on John’s campaigning bus. I have followed @JohnPrescott’s tweets throughout the campaign – they have been very robust and he never stops spreading his GoFourth message.

Next stop is to see David Hanson in Flint at the Town Hall Civic Chambers. The site has been holding political meetings since 1284. Today we are here with all the community champions and civic leaders of the 21st century. On the way Gordon and I meet 3 week old baby Sophia – very tiny, very cute and born under a Labour government which delighted her mum.

From Wales we continue our journey on to Manchester where Gordon gives a massive speech to an audience of 500 people cheering him to the rafters of the Granada studios. Here is the link so you can judge his words for yourself.

As Gordon has said he is fighting every day right up to the final moment and we continue on to Sheffield Forgemasters to meet the steel workers. Here we see the fantastic sight of the most awesome piece of steel come out of the furnace at the white hot temperature of 1200 degrees, and watch the skill with which it is shaped. Here we also hear how the government’s investments has seen this major steel manufacturing centre revive itself in the last decade to an international business that makes us proud of Britain. You can sense how strong the team are here and see first hand what an extraordinary job they do.

It is now close to midnight so we head to Leeds for an overnight stay. It has been quite a day, but we get to sleep quickly as there is another busy one coming up in the morning.