Brown heads home to defend his kingdom

It was the pop star Julian Cope who, when asked to conjure up his vision of Hell, described it as a "small place in Scotland called Glenrothes". Earlier this year after Labour was turfed out of its Glasgow East stronghold by the SNP, the death of the Fife new town's MP looked set to turn it into Gordon Brown's nightmare too.

But that was before the small matter of an international financial meltdown saw the Prime Minister hailed as the unlikely saviour of global capitalism. Meanwhile, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond saw his dream of a north European arc of prosperity alongside Iceland left with about as much credit as a customer at Icesave.

Yesterday, as Mr Brown defied convention to make his second visit to the constituency famed for its roundabouts and shopping centre, the final result was too close to call. Both parties insist they can win next Thursday, although conventional wisdom – so spectacularly wrong last time – has it that Labour will hold on. Just. The Government is defending a majority of 10,664 – less than in Glasgow East – and until the turmoil in the financial markets, Mr Brown was seen as a liability.

Related articles

• SNP 'rigs the odds' at bookmakers

As he arrived yesterday at a social club in the old pit village of Cardenden, the Prime Minister, who represents the neighbouring constituency of Kirkcaldy, was greeted by a "spontaneous" round of applause from 50 supposedly "undecided" voters gathered by party activists. Mr Brown was here to lend his support to Labour candidate Lindsay Roy, who just happens to be the headteacher at his old school. Here the Prime Minister was in his element, swapping jokes about the travails of Raith Rovers and lionising local footballing heroes.

The big issues in Glenrothes, according to Labour, are antisocial behaviour, a lack of opportunities for young people and local transport but the spectre of a looming recession is not far from anyone's mind and Mr Brown took the opportunity to lay into the SNP.

"I'm afraid the decisions that the Scottish National Party have been making are the wrong decisions. They have not done right by Scotland," said the Prime Minister, keen to lay out his unionist credentials. "They have compared themselves to economies like Iceland and Ireland that are not doing well at all. They are small economies doing very badly indeed."

Mr Salmond, making his 10th visit to the constituency, was yesterday highlighting the soaring costs of energy. The SNP candidate, the Fife council leader Peter Grant, has been in the unusual position of having gone into the campaign as favourite. While his opponent got off to a slow start, Mr Grant took a bad hit this week, picking up the nickname "Homesick" after he said he only wanted to serve one Westminster term because he could not bear to be away from Fife.

Undecided voters such as William Brennan, 70, will carry the day. He recently had to find £4,000 for a motorised scooter. Crippled with emphysema and a heart condition and with a housebound wife, he was forced to act after the cost of getting a home help went up from £4 a week to £11 an hour. A life-long Labour supporter, he is blaming the Government, which in turn is blaming the SNP-run council.

"Since everything that has happened in the past 18 months, the changes I have seen affecting me and my wife, we are still making up our minds," he said.

It was a similar story for Elaine Gordon, a 33-year-old mother of two. Her husband's council salary has been cut and tax credits are not filling the gap. "When you think about paying the mortgage, the pension and the bills, finding money for kids' clothes, there isn't that much left over," she said. "I don't know how I will vote but I wouldn't put the blame on Gordon Brown."

Glenrothes: 2005 election result

*John MacDougall MP, Labour, 19,395 votes, 51.91%

*John Beare, SNP 8,731, 23.37%

*Elizabeth Riches, Lib Dems, 4,728, 12.65%

*Belinda Don, Conservative and Unionist, 2,651, 7.09%

*George Rodger, Pensioners Party Scotland, 716, 1.92%

*Morag Balfour, Scottish Socialist Party, 705, 1.89%

*Paul Smith, UK Independence Party, 440, 1.18%

*Electorate: 66,563

*Turnout: 56.14 %