Prime Minister Gordon Brown lends support to Glenda Jackson

Pubished: 6 May, 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

GLENDA Jackson al­igned herself as closely as she possibly could with Gordon Brown in the final days of the general election campaign as the Prime Minister made a special effort to stand shoulder to shoulder with his “very close friend” on Sunday afternoon.
This came as Camden’s long-serving MPs faced repeated warnings that their seats were in real jeopardy for the first time in nearly two decades.
Mr Brown’s appearance at the North London Tavern was among a series of high-profile events organised by the three main parties as time ran out on the intriguing battle for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency – one that David Cameron will feel he needed to win in order to form a government with a workable majority.

Amid a party atmosphere in the pub, Mr Brown, accompanied by his wife Sarah, and Ms Jackson spoke to around 200 activists.
There was a celebrity flavour with EastEnders actor Michelle Collins, presenter Amy Lamé and actress Sadie Frost among the throng.
Ms Jackson said Mr Brown was the “only one who could lead Britain forward out of the economic crisis”.
Though a frequent rebel against Tony Blair, she has been a far more loyal supporter of Mr Brown.
Upstairs in the pub’s boardroom, Mr Brown briefly spoke with the local press. He blamed Camden’s housing problems on London Mayor Boris Johnson for removing the requirement that new developments  in­clude 50 percent worth of affordable homes.

Asked whether he felt comfortable endorsing a candidate that had not always toed the party line, he said: “No problem at all. Glenda is a very close friend as well as a colleague. ”
Chancellor Alastair Darling was pounding Kilburn’s streets on Tuesday morning giving another rallying cry to members as they prepared for the final rounds of canvassing and leaflet drops.
After the poll is counted, more than 70 journalists will watch her either delivering another victory speech or conceding defeat for the first time. The possibility of recounts is being taken seriously and counting is expected to take longer than usual because council elections are being held on the same day.

Ms Jackson’s future has grabbed the imagination of voters as she has spent months trying to fend off the twin threat of the Liberal Democrats through candidate Ed Fordham – the clear favourites with the bookmakers – and the Conservatives whose candidate Chris Philp has thrown his all into the campaign with some of the Tories’ biggest names passing through the constituency over the past five weeks.
The latest was Boris  Johnson, who visited West Hampstead on Friday, taking questions from passers-by, alongside shadow immigration minister Damian Green. Asked why Lib Dems had been able to put up such a good challenge, Mr Johnson joked: “Is anybody voting for the Lib Dems? Can you really find them around here?”

He added: “The British people, they’ve been given a new shiny yellow kind of Fisher-Price Tonka toy. And they’ve bashed it around, they’ve been playing with it ... and after three weeks that Fisher-Price toy is starting to look a little bit tired. I don’t wish in any way to be complacent but my distinct impression is the great Clegg bubble that has inflated over the last three weeks is about to explode.”
Yet on Wednesday, even the Daily Mail newspaper in a suggestion described as “complete rubbish” by Mr Philp, said: “Although technically a three-way contest, Conservatives can engineer a Labour defeat by switching to Lib Dem Ed Fordham.”
Mr Fordham’s final card was the Lib Dem finance spokesman Vince Cable, who enjoyed a coffee in England’s Lane, Belsize Park on Wednesday.

Asked whether he was impressed with Ms Jackson for standing up to her own Labour government over the years, Mr Cable  replied: “Yes, but as far as I know she is standing as a Labour MP here, not as an independent candidate.”
He was also keen to play up the Lib Dem threat to Frank Dobson, the Labour MP in Holborn and St Pancras. At the start of the campaign it was considered a complete outside bet but Lib Dem confidence has grown in the south of the borough. Defeat for Mr Dobson would represent a meltdown night for Labour and would not bode well for local election results which will be counted on Friday.
He has attacked the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition running the Town Hall throughout the campaign for pushing ahead with the sale of council homes.
Voters in both constituencies will select their council representatives for the next four years at the same time, with polling stations open on Thursday from 7am to 10pm.
• A full list of ­candidates is available on our website. All results will be posted upon declaration
• Our election newsdesk of Richard Osley, Tom Foot and Dan Carrier will be at the counts covering all the results that matter to you.
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