CHANCELLOR Gordon Brown became the latest high-profile Labour figure to take to the campaign trail in Kent today insisting voters were reaping the benefits of Labour’s investment in public services.

Mr Brown, who took in visits to the key Labour marginal seats of Sittingbourne and Sheppey, Gillingham, Chatham and Gravesham, was determined to ram home the message that the election represented a chance for people to decide if they wanted more investment in schools and hospitals under Labour or cuts under the Conservatives.

He denied people who had been prepared to give Labour another chance in 2001 now felt let down and disillusioned.

"People are saying they are seeing [the results] of the new investment. In 2001, we had started to build the schools, hospitals and health care facilities and repair old buildings.

"Now, people can see that a big change has taken place and people can see changes on the ground. People know there are more teachers and classroom assistants - more than 500 more in Kent. Yes, we will do more in the next few years but I think people can see new investment now making for better public services."

He rejected the suggestion that Labour’s prospects were at risk because voters were taking the economy for granted and were taking more interested in issues such as immigration and asylum.

"We have to fight on all the issues. But people will look at their prospects for years to come and will say ‘we need a stable economy and we need economic growth to create more jobs’ and will ask who they want to run the economy. There is a strong contrast between of average interest rates of five per cent under Labour and ten per cent under the Conservatives."

Mr Brown began his tour of the county in Sheppey, where Labour MP Derek Wyatt is defending a majority of just over 3,000. There, he spent 40 minutes chatting to parents and children at a Sure Start pre-school nursery in Sheerness. Later, he went to a sheltered housing centre in Rainham and met business chiefs in Aylesford.